Department for Transport

Driving: Diabetes

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions his Department has had with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency on the medical rules on driving with diabetes treated with sulphonylureas and glinides.

Claire Perry: The Secretary of State appointed the Honorary Medical Advisory Panel on Driving and Diabetes Mellitus to provide expert advice on the medical standards required for safe driving. The Panel meets twice a year and provides advice to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. Driving with diabetes treated with sulphonylureas and glinides was last discussed at the meeting held in October 2014. As a result the ‘At a Glance Guide to the Current Medical Standards of Fitness to Drive’ was updated to emphasise the need for appropriate glucose testing.

Railways: Reigate

Crispin Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to require train companies operating services from Reigate to Redhill stations to compensate passengers in instances of a reduced service over an extended period of time.

Claire Perry: Whist I do understand the inconvenience the works at London Bridge will cause to all passengers on a number of routes I will not be requiring train companies operating services from Reigate to Redhill stations, or from any other stations, to compensate passengers outside the normal Passenger Charter compensation arrangements. To require operators to provide further compensation would not only set a precedent for every future timetable change that reduced a service to/from a station throughout the duration of essential infrastructure upgrades required to improve our national rail network. It would also put additional strain on the public purse as requiring operators to provide such non contracted compensation would lead to operators seeking additional funds from Government and increasing the cost of all future improvement schemes on our network. I fully recognise that planned changes to train services as a result of engineering works can be inconvenient, but it is often impossible to rebuild and improve our Victorian infrastructure without some impact on services – sometimes for an extended period. I know Network Rail and train operators work hard to keep disruption to a minimum.

Home Office

Domestic Violence

Mr Douglas Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to reduce levels of domestic violence.

Lynne Featherstone: The Government is committed to tackling the appalling crime of domestic violence and abuse. It is actively pursuing ways in which domestic violence and abuse can be prevented in the first place, doing even more to help victims, and bringing more perpetrators to justice. In September 2013, the Home Secretary commissioned Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) to undertake a comprehensive review on how the police deal with domestic abuse. HMIC published its findings in March 2014 and highlighted serious police failings. In response, the Home Secretary has established a national oversight group to ensure that the police change the way they respond to domestic abuse, and made clear to all chief constables that every police force must have an action plan in place. All forces have now produced plans that are being reviewed by HMIC.The Government is also committed to providing the police with the tools they need to tackle domestic violence and abuse, and to ensure victims have the support they need to rebuild their lives. On 8 March, we announced the national roll-out of Domestic Violence Protection Orders and the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme across England and Wales. The Government has additionally recently consulted on whether the law needs to be strengthened by creating a specific offence of domestic abuse to offer the best possible protection to victims. That consultation has closed and responses are currently being analysed.We have also ring-fenced £40 million of funding for specialist local support services and national helplines over this Parliament. Latest data from the Crown Prosecution Service Violence against Women and Girls Crime Report 2013-2014 shows the volume of domestic violence referrals from the police rising to 103,569, the highest level ever. Prosecutions and convictions have risen by over 10% in the last year, with the conviction rate at its highest ever level at 74.6%.

Asylum: Scotland

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many refugees have settled in Scotland in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

James Brokenshire: Unfortunately it is not possible to answer the Honourable Member’s question as we do no hold this information. Once an individual has been granted refugee status they are no longer subject to reporting requirements and there is no requirement for them to inform the Home Office of their current place of residence.

Scottish Refugee Council

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she last met the Scottish Refugee Council; and when the next meeting is planned.

James Brokenshire: Home Office Ministers have meetings with a wide variety of international partners, as well as organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of these meetings are passed to the Cabinet Office on a quarterly basis and are subsequently published on the Gov.uk website: http://data.gov.uk/dataset/ministerial-data-home-office

Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre

Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many complaints about Yarl's Wood Detention Centre her Department has received regarding (a) access to healthcare and (b) mental health provision in the last 12 months.

James Brokenshire: Information on complaints relating to access to healthcare and mental health provision can fall under two categories, non-clinical and clinical.A total of 4 non-clinical complaints regarding access to healthcare or mental health provision have been received in the last twelve months. In addition the Home Office has been notified of 96 clinical complaints, routed via the centre’s healthcare provider. These complaints relate to clinical competence or treatment but may also include reference to access to healthcare or mental health provision. Due to medical confidentiality the Home Office is unable to access clinical complaints to differentiate the individual elements.The information provided is management information and has not been subject to the detailed checks that apply for National Statistics publications. The figures are provisional and are subject to change.

Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre

Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many female officers were employed by Serco at Yarl's Wood Detention Centre in each year from 2010 to 2014 to date.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office does not publish numbers of staff employed by itsservice providers at immigration removal centres as this could compromise the security of their facilities. The percentage of female detainee custody officers (DCOs) employed at Yarl’s Wood IRC by Serco for the years 2010 to 2014 is in the table below. Year Percentage of female DCOs 2010 46%2011 36%2012 46%2013 42%The information provided in the tables below is based on management information only and has not been subject to the detailed checks that apply for National Statistics publications. These figures are provisional and are subject to change.

Overseas Students: Scotland

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many non-European Economic Area students were granted visa extensions under the Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland route in each year since 2005.

James Brokenshire: The Fresh Talent Working in Scotland Scheme was closed in 2008. The information available from Home Office data for grants of leave to remain under this scheme is shown in the following table. Home Office data for grants of leave to remain under the Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland scheme 2005 - 975 2006 - 2,045 2007 - 2,935 2008 - 1,665

Overseas Students: Entry Clearances

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many non-European Economic Area students were granted visa extensions under the International Graduates Scheme in each year since 2007.

James Brokenshire: The information available relates to International Graduates Scheme visa extensions granted in the UK, 2008 to 2013. The data is given in the table below:Extensions of stay granted - International Graduates Scheme, 2008 to 2013  YearMain applicantsDependantsTotal  200816,1472,66618,813  2009321850  2010505  2011000  2012112  2013000Source: Table ex_01 Immigration Statistics April-June 2014 Table notes: Data for 2013 onwards are provisional figures. The Home Office publishes quarterly statistics on extensions of stay granted in the UK by category in table ex_01_q (Extensions) within the ‘Immigration Statistics’ release.A copy of the latest release, ‘Immigration Statistics April - June 2014’ is available from the Library of the House and from https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release

Entry Clearances: Graduates

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many graduate entrepreneur visa holders switched to a skilled workers visa under the new rules announced by her Department on 6 September 2013.

James Brokenshire: The information available indicate there were 23 grants in 2013 of leave to remain in the UK in the Tier 1 high value migrant and Tier 2 skilled worker routes who were recorded as previously holding Tier 1 Graduate Entrepreneur status.It is not possible to determine whether the decisions were made under rules announced on 6 September 2013.The Home Office publishes annual statistics on grants of an extension by previous category in tables expc_01 to expc_01_o within the ‘Immigration Statistics’ release.A copy of the latest release, ‘Immigration Statistics July - September 2014’ will be available from the Library of the House and is available from https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release.

Offences against Children

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions (a) she, (b) the Minister for Crime Prevention, the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green and (c) the previous Minister for Crime Prevention, the hon. Member for Lewes has met survivors of child sexual abuse or representatives of the survivors of child abuse.

Lynne Featherstone: Holding answer received on 28 November 2014



The Secretary of State met survivors of child sexual abuse on two occasions on 13 November and 20 November. She also met representatives of the survivors of child sexual abuse on 25 November. This was to seek their views before appointing a new Chairman to the Independent Panel Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

Domestic Violence

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent representations she has received from campaign groups on reducing violence against women and young girls; and if she will make a statement.

Lynne Featherstone: The government is committed to ending violence against women in all its forms and routinely engages with a wide range of campaigners and stakeholders. Opportunities for campaign groups to engage with government include invitations to the Violence Against Women and Girls Inter-Ministerial group as appropriate, a regular stakeholder forum, Ministerial roundtables and ad hoc bi-lateral meetings. In addition, the women’s sector have made a significant contribution to our recent series of regional roadshows for commissioners of local violence against women and girls services to share learning, good practice and facilitate relationship building between local commissioners and local providers of services to survivors of violence against women and girls.We have always been clear that we cannot tackle violence against women and girls alone. We remain determined to drive a culture change to support victims and survivors, and equip frontline services with the tools they need to tackle these crimes.

Immigration Controls: France

Mr Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what procedure is used to audit and check the UK funding allocated to improve port security in Calais.

James Brokenshire: The use of public funds in strengthening security at the Port of Calais is subject to the same oversight and audit arrangements as all other expenditure undertaken by the Home Office.

Immigration: Married People

Sir Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy that foreign citizens married to a member of the armed forces can include within their qualifying period for British citizenship the time they were living overseas while accompanying their spouse on his or her deployment.

James Brokenshire: For spouses and civil partners of British citizens there is discretion in the law to overlook time spent outside the United Kingdom accompanying a spouse or civil partner in Crown or specially "designated" service, which includes service in HM Forces. In these circumstances, time spent overseas is counted as though it were time spent in the UK for the purpose of satisfying the nationality residence requirements. For Foreign or Commonwealth members of HM Forces, where discretion would normally be exercised over excess absences occasioned by the service person’s armed forces service, the spouse’s or civil partner’s absences are normally disregarded in line.

Entry Clearances

Sammy Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what compensation is available to people who are instructed to book a return ticket before they apply for a visitor's visa to come into the UK and subsequently find that their visa application has been refused.

James Brokenshire: To support their visa application, applicants may wish to submit documents setting out accommodation and return travel bookings. However, applicants are advised not to make any payments for accommodation or travel until they have received a visa. This advice can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/general-visit-visa/documents-you-must-provideThe Home Office does not provide compensation to those who purchase travel in advance of receiving a visa if the visa application is refused.

Asylum

Mr William Bain: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers who have been granted permission to work, where the claimant has waited more than 12 months for an initial decision on their asylum claims for asylum-based further submissions, are recorded as having subsequently secured employment in each of the last three years.

Mr William Bain: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers have been granted permission to work where the claimant has waited more than 12 months for an initial decision on their asylum claim or asylum-based further submissions in each of the last three years.

James Brokenshire: The information requested by the Honourable Member is not centrally recorded and as such could only be answered with data collated through a disproportionately expensive manual search of individual case files.

British Nationality: Assessments

Dr William McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applicants for (a) indefinite leave to remain in the UK and (b) naturalisation as a British citizen have passed the Life in the UK test and have an intermediate level English Language speaking and listening qualification since the test was introduced.

James Brokenshire: The Government strengthened the requirements for indefinite leave to remain and naturalisation as a British citizen in October 2013 to require adult applicants both to pass the Life in the UK test and to have an intermediate level speaking and listening qualification. There are some limited exceptions to this requirement, for example where applicants have a physical or mental condition which severely restricts their ability to learn English and it is possible for some applicants to demonstrate their level of English in a different way such as by being a national of an English speaking country or having a degree taught in English. In the period between October 2013 and September 2014, 107,565 applicants have been granted indefinite leave and 149,357 have been naturalised as British citizens.

Entry Clearances

Sammy Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether it is necessary for applicants for a visa to visit the UK to show that they have booked a return air ticket when they apply for the visa.

James Brokenshire: Applicants must satisfy the Entry Clearance Officer that they are genuinely visiting the UK for a period of less than six months, and intend to leave the UK at the end of their proposed visit. To support their visa application, applicants may wish to submit documents setting out accommodation and return travel bookings. However, applicants are advised not to make any payments for accommodation or travel until they have received a visa. Guidance on the types of supporting documents that applicants can provide as part of their visa application is available on the UK Visas and Immigration page of gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visitor-visa-guide-to-supporting-documents.

Wildlife: Smuggling

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress the National Crime Agency is making on preventing illegal wildlife trade over the internet.

Karen Bradley: Holding answer received on 01 December 2014



The National Wildlife Crime Unit, housed in Hampshire Police leads the UK efforts to tackle wildlife crime. Since 2010, and over the current spending review period, the Government has committed an additional £544,000 of specific funding for the Unit. The National Crime Agency focuses on the relentless disruption of serious and organised criminals and those that present the highest risk to the UK and its communities. Where high risk organised criminals are engaged in illegal wildlife trade the NCA will lead, support or coordinate an appropriate level of response. That response could include the NCA’s niche capabilities such as the National Cyber Crime Unit or its global network of liaison officers.Border Force also actively contributes to the UK’s multi-agency approach to tackling wildlife crime involving the international trade in endangered species and their derivatives. At an operational level the Border Force CITES team work with Government agencies including the National Wildlife Crime Unit and NCA to target illegal wildlife traffickers. The team also deliver training for NCA Officers, the police and many international law enforcement agencies. Through partnership working a number of successful prosecutions have taken place including for ivory and hard coral smuggling. Since 2010 the number of customs seizures made by Border Force of animals, plants or their derivatives that are prohibited or restricted under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) have increased from 386 to 501 in 2013/14.

Armed Forces: Libya

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to her oral Answer of 24 November 2014, Official Report, column 628, on Bilateral training programmes (Libya), of the five Libyan service personnel who have been in receipt of military training in the UK and are now being investigated for serious crimes, how many have also claimed political asylum in the UK.

James Brokenshire: The general policy of the Home Office is not to disclose personal information about another person. This is because we have obligations under the Data Protection Act and in law generally to protect this information.The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who need our protection and every claim will be considered on its individual merits.

Offenders: Mental Illness

Mr Bob Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the progress made by crime agencies in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England to sign up to the principles of the Crisis Care Concordat.

Lynne Featherstone: As part of the roll-out of the Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat, published by the Government in February 2014, health, social care and criminal justice partners across England have been invited to develop and sign local Concordat declarations. The relevant Police and Crime Commissioner and Police Force are two of seven essential signatories to each local declaration.I share the aim of the Right Honourable Norman Lamb MP, the Minister for Care and Support, that declarations should be in place throughout England by the end of 2014. Progress towards this across all areas of England can be seen at the following webpage: http://www.crisiscareconcordat.org.uk/explore-the-map/I understand that there are plans for Crisis Care declarations covering Coventry and the West Midlands to be agreed in early December.

Counter-terrorism

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many referrals her Department's counter-terrorism referral units have received from internet companies in each of the last five years.

James Brokenshire: The Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit refers to internet companies instances of content that is in breach of the Terrorism Act 2000 and 2006. They also receive referrals of content from the public as well as other partners. It has not received any referrals from internet companies. The Home Department does not have any counter terrorism referral units so no referrals have been received.

Staff

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2014 to Question 215331, what her Department's total headcount has been in each of the last five years; and which executive agencies were included in the figure given for frontline staff in that Answer.

Karen Bradley: The total headcount (full time equivalents) in the Home Department for the last five years is set out in Table 1. The Executive Agencies included in these figures are:• Criminal Records Bureau (to December 2012)• UK Border Agency (to 1st April 2013)• National Fraud Authority (from March 2012 to 31st March 2014)• Identity and Passport Service/HM Passport Office   



Department Headcount
(Excel SpreadSheet, 13.25 KB)

Proceeds of Crime

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2014 to Question 215386, how many of the suspicious activity reports were followed up in each year; and how many (a) investigations, (b) enforcement actions, (c) referrals to other agencies and (d) prosecutions there were as a result in each year.

Karen Bradley: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Counter-terrorism

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 13 December 2013, Official Report, column 384W, on counter-terrorism and pursuant to the Answer of 27 October 2014 to Question 210417, under what categories the additional £2.7 million spent by local authorities in 2013-14 was counted.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Proceeds of Crime

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2014 to Question 215386, how many of the suspicious activity reports submitted to the National Crime Agency or the Serious Organised Crime Agency in the last five years were connected to (a) alleged terrorism and (b) each other category of offence.

Karen Bradley: Suspicious activity reports (SARs) are submitted to the National Crime Agency under two pieces of legislation: the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 for suspicions of money laundering, or the Terrorism Act 2000 for suspicions of terrorist financing. The predicate offence in each case is not required when submitting a SAR and therefore no record of other categories of offences is held.The following table details the numbers of SARs submitted to the NCA and SOCA in the last five years which were submitted under suspicions of terrorist financing and those submitted under suspicion of money laundering offences. YearTotal Number of SARs SubmittedNumber of SARsSubmitted under TACT 2000Number of SARs submitted under POCA 20022009 – 2010240,582599239,9832010 – 2011247,601662246,9392011 – 2012278,665695277,9702012 – 2013316,527856315,6712013 – 2014354,1861342352,844

HM Passport Office

Mr Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Passport Office staff who were previously made redundant are permitted to apply for existing or forthcoming vacancies.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

HM Passport Office

Mr Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, under what methodology her Department decides staffing levels at the Passport Office.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Illegal Immigrants: West Midlands

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Written Statement of 3 September 2014, Official Report, column 21WS, on Immigration Act 2014: implementation, how her Department plans to monitor and record information collected from the pilot scheme for landlords to make immigration checks in the West Midlands from 1 December 2014.

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to release the results of the immigration checks pilot in the West Midlands due to begin on 1 December 2014.

James Brokenshire: The Government has given a commitment to evaluate the impacts of the implementation of the provisions in the Immigration Act as they relate to the private rented sector in its first six months. The results will be published in the late summer or autumn of next year. The Home Office will be recording and monitoring activity to support and enforce the scheme. The evaluation will also look at other impacts. These include access to the private rented sector, impacts on landlords, agents and local services, such as local authorities, and any effects on discrimination or vulnerable people. A consultative panel of bodies representing landlords, lettings agents, local authorities, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and CRISIS is overseeing the evaluation.

Counter-terrorism

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her speech on counter-terrorism at the Royal United Services Institute on 24 November 2014, on what dates in the last 12 months terrorist plots planned in the UK were thwarted by actions of the security services; and what information she is able to disclose about the character of the intended targets of those plots.

James Brokenshire: We do not comment on the actions of the Security Service.

Slavery

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer to the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North of 20 October 2014 to Question 210663, whether any of the budget for raising awareness of modern slavery has been spent on online or print articles in publications other than The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.

Karen Bradley: Holding answer received on 02 December 2014



The Home Office launched a marketing campaign in July 2014 to raise awareness of Modern Slavery in the UK and promote a new Modern Slavery helpline and website. National press partnerships with The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday formed one part of the campaign, which included sponsored online and print articles in these publications and their respective websites: ‘Mail Online’ and ‘The Telegraph’ website.

Slavery

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer to the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North of 20 October 2014 to Question 210663, how the budget for raising awareness of modern slavery has been spent.

Karen Bradley: Holding answer received on 02 December 2014



The Modern Slavery marketing campaign launched on 31st July with the aim of bringing this hidden crime out into the open. The campaign included a TV advert supported by digital and video advertising. National press partnership activity was then used to explain the issue in greater depth, including the signs of slavery to look out for, to raise awareness and encourage reporting. A website was developed to provide further information on the issue and provide another means of reporting, in addition to a new helpline. Another strand of the campaign targets employers in the small and medium sized enterprise sectors in which slavery has been reported, including construction and hospitality to remind them of their responsibility to ensure they are not employing slavery labour directly or indirectly. Activity includes trade press, online and email advertising. Local activity will also run as a pilot in Bradford, targeting victims and affected communities of modern slavery with advice on recognising and reporting slavery. Specific activity is currently being scoped out and planned, but is likely to include community events and local partner activity. The £2.3 million total campaign budget was spent on media and production costs to deliver the outlined activity and includes the cost of evaluating the campaign.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Crimes against Humanity

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the UK's responsibilities are in international law to identify, prevent, suppress and punish acts of genocide and crimes against humanity; and if he will make a statement.

Mr David Lidington: The UK is party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 1948 which requires that we prevent and punish the crime of genocide in our jurisdiction. We are also party to the Convention Against Torture 1948 which requires us to take measures to prevent torture in our jurisdiction, and to prosecute or extradite individuals who are in the UK, and who are alleged to have committed torture anywhere in the world. As a State Party to the International Criminal Court Statute (ICC), the UK has also made it a domestic crime to commit any of the crimes in the ICC Statute, including genocide and crimes against humanity. Where such crimes take place in the UK, or are committed by UK nationals, they can be prosecuted before the UK courts.

Russia

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the Russian Federation on that country's increased patrols near NATO airspace; and if he will make a statement.

Mr David Lidington: We have made no direct representations to the Government of Russia on this issue. The UK strongly supports comments made by NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg last week calling on Russia to obey the norms of international air traffic and understand that he has plans to follow up with Russia directly on this point. NATO Foreign Ministers, including the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), will discuss Russia’s actions at the forthcoming meeting on 2 December. The UK strongly supports exploring options to improve military transparency between NATO and Russia.

Water

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to reduce water (a) usage and (b) bills in his Department; and if he will make a statement.

Mr David Lidington: In the last two years, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has implemented, or is implementing, the following measures to reduce water consumption in its UK estate:•Reducing water flow pressure•Adjusting urinal flushing•Installation of shower and tap regulators•Installation of single flush toilets and low flush urinals•Water softening on data-centre chilled water system•Installation of more efficient washing machines•Installation of toilet cistern water saving devices•Extensive installation of water sub-meters•Analysis of water consumption per building to identify waste•Grey water harvesting at our Hanslope Park data-centre building•Water audit at Hanslope Park•Leak detectionBy the quarter July to September 2014, these measures had reduced water consumption by 27.5% compared to the same period in 2013. That represents an annual water saving of 18,256m3.There have been no specific actions yet to renegotiate water tariffs.

Bahrain

Mr Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Bahraini counterpart on the recent arrest, detention and alleged torture of a group of women accused of organising a public referendum.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: I am aware of the arrest of 15 women on 16 November on suspicion of disrupting the electoral process, belonging to an illegal group and calling for the overthrow of the Government of Bahrain. I understand that all of them have now been released, but investigations into 12 individuals continue. Our Embassy in Bahrain will monitor these cases.The Government stands firmly against torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment. We remain concerned by continuing allegations of torture and mistreatment in Bahrain, and continue to urge the Government of Bahrain to investigate any such allegations promptly, thoroughly and impartially.

Armed Conflict: Females

Naomi Long: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the role played by women in peace-building in (a) Afghanistan and (b) other countries entering a post-conflict period.

James Duddridge: Women have largely been under-represented in peace-building efforts with only 2.5% of signatories to peace agreements being women. This is unacceptable and more must be done. With this in mind, the UK has been working in Afghanistan, and other post-conflict countries, to improve women’s political participation and their role in building peace.

Middle East

Kevin Barron: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help bring Israeli and Palestinian leaders back to peace talks.

Mr Philip Hammond: The UK is fully supporting US-led efforts, working with the Egyptians, to bring Israeli and Palestinian leaders back to negotiations aimed at achieving a lasting peace. We are also working with European partners, especially France and Germany, to support that US-led process.

Tibet

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the human rights position in Tibet.

Mr Hugo Swire: We have serious concerns about the human rights situation in Tibet, particularly the reported restrictions being placed on freedom of expression, association and assembly. We are troubled by reported episodes of violence during popular protests in Tibet. We believe meaningful dialogue is the best way to address underlying grievances.

Iran

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the prospects of achieving a comprehensive deal with Iran on nuclear issues.

Mr Philip Hammond: Negotiations to ensure Iran’s nuclear programme is peaceful have been tough, but we have made progress. We believe a deal which addresses our concerns is possible. That is why negotiations were extended until 30 June. We believe the twin track policy of sanctions and negotiations is yielding results.

Pakistan

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the government of Pakistan on protection of Christians in that country.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: We remain deeply concerned by the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan. We continue to raise our human rights concerns with the Pakistan authorities at the highest level.I raised this issue with the Pakistani High Commissioner on 28 October, and with the Chief Minister of the Punjab, Mr Shanbaz Sharif, on 26 November.

Nigeria

John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of international support for the Nigerian authorities in tackling Boko Haram.

James Duddridge: While attacks by Boko Haram continue across the North East of Nigeria, UK and other international support is assisting the Nigerian authorities to improve the coordination and effectiveness of their security operations. I led the UK delegation to the last meeting of regional Foreign Ministers in Abuja on 3 September where I stressed the importance of regional and international cooperation to help Nigeria end the threat from Boko Haram.

Commonwealth

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps the Government has taken to promote trade within the Commonwealth.

Mr Hugo Swire: This Government is committed to working to increase trade across the Commonwealth. Most recently, the Government has provided financial and public support to the new Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council so it can fully establish itself as the leading business representation and trade advocacy organisation in the Commonwealth.

Iran

Pauline Latham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the prospects of achieving a comprehensive deal with Iran on nuclear issues.

Mr Philip Hammond: Negotiations to ensure Iran’s nuclear programme is peaceful have been tough, but we have made progress. We believe a deal which addresses our concerns is possible. That is why negotiations were extended until 30 June. We believe the twin track policy of sanctions and negotiations is yielding results.

Cabinet Office

Average Earnings

Mr William Bain: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of changes in real weekly earnings for (a) all workers, (b) male workers, (c) female workers, (d) part-time workers, (e) full-time workers, (f) male part-time workers, (g) male full-time workers, (h) female part-time workers and (i) female full-time workers as defined in the recent Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings in each parliamentary constituency between April 2013 and April 2014.

Mr Rob Wilson: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply. 



Excel Sheet for Member - Real Weekly Earnings
(Excel SpreadSheet, 396.21 KB)




ONS Letter to Member - Real Weekly Earnings
(PDF Document, 110.76 KB)

Local Government: Procurement

Steve McCabe: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 6 November 2014 to Question 212539, if he will publish the guidance to local authorities on the effect of the 2014 EU Procurement Directives on procurement by local authorities of school places for children and young people with special educational needs.

Mr Francis Maude: Information on implementing the 2014 EU Procurement Directives, and training materials for procurement professionals, are available on GOV.UKThe Department for Education will be providing specific guidance on the new regulations for the Education sector via http://www.buyways.co.uk/; through speakers at education and children sector conferences; and through other sector specific guidance particularly to Local Authorities and institutions on the interaction between the new Regulations and the Children and Families Act 2014.

Water

Simon Kirby: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to reduce water (a) usage and (b) bills in his Department; and if he will make a statement.

Simon Kirby: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to reduce water (a) usage and (b) bills in his Office; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Francis Maude: The Cabinet Office is committed to reducing the water consumption of its buildings. To date, my department has reduced its water consumption by 17.9% since 2009. Government is rationalising its estate, reducing the total number of properties, intensified occupation in remaining buildings and consequently reduced water usage and bills across the department.Within the reduced estate, the Cabinet Office has introduced water reduction measures. These include motion-activated taps; removing unnecessary storage tanks and headers; and, installing additional metering and real time data to assist in monitoring of consumption to detect irregular usage patterns that could possibly be leakage.

National Security Council

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many staff work for the National Security Council; and where those staff are based.

Mr Francis Maude: The work programme of the National Security Council (NSC) is supported by the National Security Secretariat (NSS) in the Cabinet Office. NSS currently has a headcount of 180. These staff are based in buildings across the Cabinet Office estate in London, and a small number in York.

Suicide

Luciana Berger: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many suicides there have been of (a) women and (b) men in each region and constituent part of the UK in each year since 2010.

Mr Rob Wilson: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply. 



ONS Letter to Member - Suicides
(PDF Document, 141.24 KB)

Charities

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will place in the Library a full list of attendees from charities invited to No. 10 Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister in May 2010.

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will place in the Library a copy of the minutes and a list of the attendees of the meeting between the then Minister for Government Policy and the Big Society Network in September 2010.

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will place in the Library a copy of the minutes and a list of the attendees of the meeting between the then Minister for Civil Society and the Big Society Network in March 2012.

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will place in the Library a copy of the minutes and a list of the attendees of the meeting between the then Minister for Civil Society and the Big Society Network in May 2012.

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will place in the Library a copy of the minutes and a list of the attendees of the meeting between the then Minister for Civil Society and the Big Society Network in February 2012.

Mr Rob Wilson: Details of meetings between ministers and external organisations are available on https://www.gov.uk as well as details of official and charity receptions held at 10 Downing Street.

Impact Assessments

Richard Burden: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether it is Government policy to produce impact assessments in respect of legislation introduced in Parliament.

Mr Oliver Letwin: Government policy in respect of legislation is set out in the Cabinet Office Guide to Making Legislation published on GOV.UK. On page 110 this makes clear impact assessments are generally required where:· legislation will impose or reduce costs on businesses or civil society organisations;· impose or remove a new information obligation for the public sector;· introduce any other administrative burdens or unfunded policy costs of £5 million or more (annual equivalent costs) on the public sector; or· where there is an exchange or ‘transfer’ of costs or benefits from one group to another, even where it does not yield an overall net change in costs and benefits.

Attorney General

Water

Simon Kirby: To ask the Attorney General, what steps he is taking to reduce water (a) usage and (b) bills in the Law Officers' Departments; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Robert Buckland: In line with the requirements of the Greening Government Commitment Targets, the Law Officers’ Departments are taking steps to reduce water consumption and costs. Reductions have been achieved through a range of measures including the introduction of water meters and water flow restrictors to reduce usage in washrooms. Reductions in the size of the estate and in staff numbers have also contributed to the decline in water consumption.Against the 2009/10 benchmark of 69,068 cubic metres, consumption was reduced by 40% to 41,164 cubic metres by the end of reporting year 2012/13. Projections for reporting year 2013/14 indicate further improvement. Specific information on the Law Officers’ Departments consumption of water and any associated expenditure during the last financial year is published in their respective Annual Report and Resource Accounts. These also detail actions undertaken to reduce usage. Copies of these are already available in the Library of the House or can found on the https://www.gov.uk/ website.

Eleanor De Freitas

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Attorney General, what discussions he has had with the Director of Public Prosecutions on the review into the death of Eleanor de Freitas.

Mr Robert Buckland: The Attorney General and I have regular discussions with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on a wide range of criminal matters and this has recently included the case involving Eleanor de Freitas. The DPP has made clear that she is looking at the detail surrounding the case and will be addressing the family’s concerns fully and directly.

English Language: Education

Ian Lucas: To ask the Attorney General, how many prosecutions have been brought in relation to fraud in English language tests at universities revealed in the BBC's Panorama investigation broadcast in February 2014.

Mr Robert Buckland: The Specialist Fraud Division of the Crown Prosecution Service is currently prosecuting four individuals in one case, arising out of the BBC’s Panorama investigation broadcast on 10 February 2014. That investigation highlighted alleged irregularities in the administration of English language examinations at two educational establishments (not universities) operating under the names Bright Consultant Services Ltd (London) and Universal Training Centre (Watford). The matter is sub judice to secure a fair trial.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Students: Suffolk

Mr David Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what proportion of students in Suffolk local education authority area applied for student (a) loans and (b) grants in the (i) 2008-09, (ii) 2009-10 and (iii) 2010-11 academic years.

Greg Clark: The number of full-time students, residing in the local authority of Suffolk when they applied for financial support, who were awarded student loans or grants in academic years 2008/09 to 2013/14 is shown in Table 1. It was not possible to provide the proportions requested in the answer because estimates of the loan and grant eligible population are not available at that level of detail. Table 1 -- Students awarded student loans or grants who were living in Suffolk Local Authority1 when they applied for financial support. Local authority: SuffolkType of financial supportAcademic YearLoans[2]Grants and Allowances [3]2008/0910,3006,5002009/1011,1006,6002010/1111,3006,7002011/1211,8007,1002012/1311,7006,6002013/1412,0006,700 Source: Student Loans Company [1] Suffolk Local Authority covers applicants with postcodes in Babergh, Forest Heath, Ipswich, Mid Suffolk, St Edmundsbury and Suffolk districts at the time of application [2] Includes maintenance and tuition fee loans [3] Includes Higher Education grants, Special Support grants, Maintenance grants, Tuition Fee grants, Disabled Student allowances, Travel grants, Childcare grants, Dependants grants, Parental Learning allowances and Adult Dependant grants. [4] Data refer to the mid-November following the end of each respective academic year. [5] Figures may differ slightly from the answer provided in March 2011 as a more recent postcode address file has been used.

Water

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to reduce water (a) usage and (b) bills in his Department; and if he will make a statement.

Jo Swinson: The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), including 9 arm-lengths bodies, has a baseline for water use of 283,495m3 across the estate. In April 2014 the Department achieved a 45% reduction compared to the baseline. One method for reducing water consumption since April 2014 has been to install waterless urinals throughout the building at 1 Victoria Street. In addition to this, BIS has also reduced flush capacity by 3 litres so far in year 2014/15. The Department is aiming to build on the current reduction by the end of year 2014/15 and we anticipate that the decrease in water usage by BIS will equate to a significant financial saving.

Higher Education: Shrewsbury

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will discuss with the Leader of Shropshire Council the technical and financial assistance that would be required to establish a new university in Shrewsbury.

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the potential for a new university to be established in Shrewsbury.

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps the Government is taking to support Shropshire Council's efforts to establish a new university in Shrewsbury.

Greg Clark: I understand that the University of Chester is working with local partners and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) with the aim of opening a campus in Shrewsbury which in time, may develop into a higher education institution in its own right.I will be happy to have a discussion with my Hon. Friend and the Leader of Shropshire Council about the plans to establish a new university in Shrewsbury.

Social Services: Pay

Mr Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will publish the timetable within which the Government's consideration of how further targeted enforcement in the care sector can be undertaken through its annual review of the HM Revenue and Customs service level agreement for national minimum wage enforcement.

Jo Swinson: BIS monitors and reviews activity against the Service Level Agreement with HM Revenue and Customs throughout the year, and is considering what further targeted enforcement action might be appropriate to inform the next Service Level Agreement, which will commence in April 2015. I therefore do not plan to publish a more detailed timetable. As set out in my response to the Hon. Member for Sheffield Central (Paul Blomfield), parliamentary question 213960, on 5 November 2014, action by HMRC continues to follow up on the previous targeted enforcement in the care sector, in addition to responding to every complaint made to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline. Any worker who believes that they are being paid below the minimum wage should call the Helpline on 0800 917 2368.

Higher Education: Admissions

Mr Adrian Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many and what proportion of undergraduates studying in universities are of each social grade.

Greg Clark: Holding answer received on 28 November 2014



The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) publish information annually on the participation in Higher Education by under-represented students groups in their UK Performance Indicators tables. The available figures on participation by National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC) can be located in Table 1a at the following link:   https://www.hesa.ac.uk/pis/09/10/urg   HESA figures show that 73,240 (or 32.6%) of young UK domiciled First degree entrants in UK universities came from socio-economic classifications that comprise small employers/account workers, lower supervisory and technical workers and semi routine or routine occupations.

Flexible Working: Scotland

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) women and (b) men in (i) Scotland and (ii) Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency who have made a statutory application to request flexible working.

Jo Swinson: The latest Work-life Balance Employee Survey which is available on .gov.uk shows that in 2011, 28% of women employees and 17% of male employees in Great Britain, and 17% of employees in Scotland had made a request to change their working arrangements in the last two years. The Survey does not provide the statistics for men and women at the level of Scotland, or at the level of the Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency. The survey defines working arrangements as the amount of hours worked, when these hours are worked, and where (e.g. at home).

Groceries Code Adjudicator

Mr Mike Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, on how many occasions the Grocery Code Adjudicator has (a) launched an investigation, (b) recommended enforcement measures and (c) made a recommendation to the Office of Fair Trading that the Code should be changed since publication of the Adjudicator's 2013-14 annual report.

Jo Swinson: The Groceries Code Adjudicator is an independent regulator established under the Groceries Code Adjudicator Act 2013.   I am not aware that the Adjudicator has exercised any of these regulatory functions since the publication of her Annual Report for 2013 – 2014 on 22 July 2014.

Groceries Code Adjudicator

Mr Mike Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what information he holds on the average time taken by the office of the Groceries Code Adjudicator to deal with correspondence received from stakeholders.

Jo Swinson: Correspondence from stakeholders is an operation matter for the office of the Groceries Code Adjudicator, which is an independent statutory regulator established by the Groceries Code Adjudicator Act 2013.   The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills does not therefore hold the requested information.

Groceries Code Adjudicator

Mr Mike Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many staff are employed by the Grocery Code Adjudicator.

Jo Swinson: The Groceries Code Adjudicator is a corporation sole created by the Groceries Code Adjudicator Act 2013. Consequently, the Adjudicator does not directly employ any staff.   The office of the Adjudicator is staffed by public sector employees as provided for by Schedule 1 to the 2013 Act. There are currently four staff seconded to the office of the Adjudicator.

Copyright: EU Action

Mr Tom Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to ensure that European Commission proposals for reform of the European Copyright Framework do not undermine the principle that writers and other creators should be rewarded for their work.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The Government wants to ensure that any proposals on European copyright reform serve to deepen the digital single market, promote innovation, and continue to ensure that writers and other creators are rewarded for their work.   The Government will be engaging with the European Commission across the digital single market agenda to promote a single market which supports economic growth and enables businesses, creators and consumers to enjoy the opportunities presented by the digital economy.

Construction: Industry

Dr William McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department plans to take to facilitate sustainable recovery in the construction industry.

Nick Boles: Returning the UK to sustainable and balanced growth is a key priority for Government. Construction has a central to play in that – accounting for 6.5% of GVA and employing around 3.1 million people. We are therefore working with the industry to remove barriers to growth by improving the planning system and access to finance, and easing the burden of regulation. On the demand side, we are stimulating the house building industry - in Autumn Statement 2013 my Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a £1bn extension of the Local Infrastructure Fund for large scale housing sites, to unlock around 250,000 homes over 6 years. We are also stimulating infrastructure development. The National Infrastructure Plan (NIP) sets a strategic vision for forthcoming infrastructure needs. It has identified a pipeline of over 500 projects costing around £250bn to 2015 and beyond. On the supply side, we are working closely with the Construction Leadership Council to ensure that the industry is well placed to respond to growing markets, tackling issues such as skills, innovation, sustainability, productivity, efficiency and export performance.

Department for International Development

Water

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to reduce water (a) usage and (b) bills in her Department; and if she will make a statement.

Mr Desmond Swayne: DFID has implemented several measures to reduce water usage and bills. We have installed dual flush mechanisms, waterless urinals and have also installed Passive Infrared (PIR) Shut off Valves in all our toilets. We also have a water leak monitoring system at our office in London. DFID meets the industry benchmark of good practice with water usage of between 4cm³ to 6cm³ per FTE. We have reduced total water consumption by 17% since the Greening Government baseline year.

Department for Education

Special Educational Needs

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the minimum requirements are for an initial Local Offer.

Mr Edward Timpson: The statutory requirement on a local authority from 1 September 2014 is to consult when it is preparing its Local Offer and to publish that Local Offer following consultation. Since local authorities have, for some time, been required to publish different information about support for children and young people who are disabled or have special educational needs, the Department for Education encouraged them to publish information in September 2104 and work with children, young people and parents to develop and update it, so that it could be included in the Local Offer which was prepared. The Local Offer will be reviewed, kept up to date and developed over time.

Special Educational Needs

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of how far local authorities are complying with their statutory duties on local offers.

Mr Edward Timpson: All local authorities have published their local offers and are required by the Children and Families Act 2014 to review them in consultation with children with special educational needs and disabilities and their parents and young people who are disabled or have special educational needs. This will enable local authorities to assess how responsive their local offer is to local needs and take action to improve it.

Special Educational Needs

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the cost to local authorities of implementing Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014.

Mr Edward Timpson: The additional costs to local authorities in England of implementing Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014 are estimated at £45.2 million in 2014-15 and £31.7 million in 2015-16. £45.2 million has been allocated to local authorities in 2014-15 and the Government intends to allocate a further £31.7 million for 2015-16.

Teachers

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what modelling her Department has undertaken of the impact of recent changes in (a) pay levels, (b) pension contributions and (c) national insurance contributions on the supply of teachers.

Mr David Laws: The Department for Education uses the Teacher Supply Model (TSM) to calculate the optimum number of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) places required to match the future supply of teachers to the estimated demand for qualified teachers within the state funded sector in England. The National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) use this information to inform their allocation of ITT places to teacher training providers.   The Department does not include pension and National Insurance contribution as factors in econometric forecasts of numbers who will leave the profession; however we do use average relative pay.   Whilst the Department estimates future teacher demand at a national level, decision-making taken at school level determines the actual number of teachers required. In addition, the reforms to teachers’ pay that were introduced from September 2013 have given schools greater freedom to develop local reward packages which enable them to attract and retain the good teachers they need.   The Department has published the TSM online, along with an outline of the wastage forecast methodology. This is available through the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-supply-model

Special Guardianship Orders

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many special guardianship orders have been granted in each year since their inception.

Mr Edward Timpson: The Department for Education collect annual figures from local authorities of the number of children who leave care under a Special Guardianship Order. Special Guardianship was introduced as a new permanence option for children that offered greater security than foster care, but without the absolute legal severance from their birth family. Overall, it is good news that thousands of additional children are now living in a permanent family as a result of more SGOs being used.The table below shows these figures since 2007 when SGOs first started to be made.YearLooked After Children wholeave care under an SGO***Overall number of childrenwho have an SGO[1]2007750-20081,130-20091,240-20101,280-20111,7802,98020122,1504,07420132,7704,91120143,330-***NB – rounded to the nearest 10The Department for Education Statistical First Release on ‘Children looked after in England, including adoption’ contains data for the last 5 years. Figures quoted cover financial years 1st April – 31st March [2]. [1] The Ministry of Justice collect information of all children with a Special Guardianship Order, only figures for the last 3 years are available. Figures quoted cover calendar years – 1st January – 31st December.[2] www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption--2

Special Guardianship Orders

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what research she has commissioned into the efficacy of special guardianship orders; what findings she has made about who are using these orders; and if she will make a statement.

Mr Edward Timpson: The Department for Education has recently published a comprehensive research study investigating local authorities’ responses to special guardianship and the experiences of special guardianship families. A copy of the full report is available online at:www.gov.uk/government/publications/investigating-special-guardianship

Foster Care

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many new foster carers have been recruited in each local authority area in each of the last five years; and what measures her Department takes to monitor recruitment patterns.

Mr Edward Timpson: Data on the number of new foster carer households approved during the year has been collected by Ofsted since 2011-12. The numbers that were recruited in 2011-12 for each local authority area are included in the attached table. Equivalent local authority figures for 2012-13 and 2013-14 are due to be published in January 2015, although national figures are already available for 2012-13. [1] Ofsted did not collect this data prior to 2011-12 and consequently the data for earlier years are not available.The Department for Education is supporting local authorities and independent fostering agencies through initiatives to promote recruitment and retention and broaden the range of foster carers, in line with their local assessments of the demand for foster carers. [1] www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/fostering-quality-assurance-and-data-forms-2012-13-first-statistical-release



Applications_from_prospective_fostering_households
(Excel SpreadSheet, 44.5 KB)

Ministry of Justice

Prisoners: LGBT People

Ms Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the number of prisoners declaring themselves to be lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered.

Andrew Selous: The number of prisoners in England and Wales broken down by sexual orientation as at 26 September 2014 is shown in the table below: Table: Headcount of prisoners by Sexual Orientation as at 26 September 2014 Sexual OrientationHeadcountLesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Other1779Heterosexual / Straight63738Not Asked/Refused to State20117Grand Total85634 Transgender Prisoners with a Gender Recognition Certificate are recorded on administrative systems as their legal gender. In accordance with the Gender Recognition Act of 2004 and the Equality Act 2010, transgender individuals are not identified as being transgender on administrative systems.

Prisons: Wales

Mr David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will ensure that as much of the construction and fitting-out work as possible at the new North Wales prison is carried out by locally-based contractors.

Andrew Selous: Lend Lease has committed to spending £30 million with local businesses and that at least 50% of the entire workforce will be recruited from within a 50 mile radius, with a target of 70%. Under the contractual arrangements in place, Lend Lease are required to report to the MoJ how much of the contract is being spent with companies within a 25 and 50 mile radius of the prison site. A number of supplier engagement events have been held where local businesses were able to meet constructors. Opportunities have been advertised on Business Wales and Sell2Wales using a dedicated North Wales project page. The North Wales Prison Employment, Skills and Engagement Committee is being created to focus on enabling the delivery of apprenticeships, training and local employment and work placement days. A Learning and Development Academy for supply chain, SME’s and local businesses and local people is also being set up to improve skills and secure tenders. To date over £1.1m has been spent with local businesses as part of the early works at the prison site.

Open Prisons

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners serving what sentence length are being held in open prisons.

Andrew Selous: The below table provides the number of prisoners serving sentences currently and residing in open prisons, by sentence length. Prisoners serving an immediate custodial sentence in open prisons, 30 September 2014, England and WalesSentence length30-Sep-14  Less than or equal to 6 months26  More than 6 months to less than 12 months53  12 months to less than 4 years820  4 years or more (excluding indeterminate)2,167  Indeterminate sentences1,038  Recall43  All sentenced prisoners4,147  The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.This data does not include untried, convicted unsentenced, fine defaulter or non-criminal prisoners. There are two means by which indeterminate sentenced prisoners (ISPs – both those serving life and indeterminate sentences for public protection (IPPs)) – are considered for transfer to open conditions. The principal means is by way of a positive recommendation from the independent Parole Board, which falls to officials either to accept or reject on behalf of the Secretary of State, under agreed delegated authority. However, ISPs may also apply to progress to open conditions without Parole Board involvement, where they can show exceptional progress in reducing their risk. Each application is determined on its merits under agreed delegated authority from the Secretary of State by officials in the Offender Management and Public Protection Group in the Ministry of Justice. Determinate sentenced prisoners are assessed for their suitability for open conditions by experienced prison staff with relevant input from offender managers and other professionals within the prison. The assessment will consider the extent to which the prisoner has reduced identified risks and any intelligence or other information that provides evidence of the prisoner’s trustworthiness for conditions of very low security. Determinate sentence prisoners should not generally be moved to open prison if they have more than two years to serve to their earliest release date, unless assessment of a prisoner’s individual risks and needs support earlier categorisation to open conditions. Such cases must have the reasons for their categorisation fully documented and confirmed in writing by the Governing Governor. All offenders located in open conditions have been rigorously risk assessed and their risks have been deemed manageable in open conditions. The public have understandable concerns about the failure of some prisoners to return from temporary release from open prison. Keeping the public safe is our priority and we will not allow the actions of a small minority of offenders to undermine public confidence in the prison system. The number of temporary release failures remains very low; less that one failure in every 1,000 releases and about five in every 100,000 releases involving alleged offending, but we take each and every incident seriously. The Government has already ordered immediate changes to tighten up the system as a matter of urgency. Prisoners are now no longer eligible for transfer to open conditions if they have previously absconded from open prisons; or if they have failed to return or reoffended whilst released on temporary licence, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Prisons: Security

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether transmission x-rays are likely to be used in normal search procedures in prisons in the next 12 months.

Andrew Selous: The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) employs a range of technological aids to assist in searching including: hand held detectors, portals and Body Orifice Security Scanners, which can detect metallic items concealed internally. X-ray machines are used in most prisons to screen baggage and goods entering prisons but are not used for searching people and there are presently no plans to introduce the technology for this purpose in prisons in England and Wales.

Altcourse Prison

Steve Rotheram: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase prisoner safety at HM Prison Altcourse.

Andrew Selous: The Government does not tolerate violence of any kind within the prison estate, and prisoner safety is treated extremely seriously. Tackling violence in prisons is a priority for this Government, and steps are being taken to manage levels of violence within a complex and challenging prison population. We will be issuing new guidance to public sector and contracted prison providers on managing violence early next year. The recently announced joint national protocol between National Offender Management Service (NOMS), the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on the appropriate handling of crimes in prison strengthens existing policy and requirements on the reporting of serious assaults or other serious crime occurring in custody so that this type of crime can be targeted. The protocol will be published before the end of the financial year following final consultation.  G4S, who manage HMP Altcourse, are preparing an action plan to address any strategic weaknesses, to be overseen by Phil Wheatley, formerly Director General of NOMS. They are in the process of revising HMP Altcourse’s local Incentive and Earned Privilege (IEP), Violence Reduction and Safer Custody strategies. They are also arranging for the provision of additional resources to support local management in security and residential functions. NOMS regularly carries out operational audits and assessments of all aspects of prisoner safety at all prisons and will continue to monitor HMP Altcourse’s progress closely.

Prisons: Closures

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of savings to the public purse which will accrue from the closure of prisons in the UK in the next three years.

Andrew Selous: We will always have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts and will aim to deal with the prison population in a way that gives taxpayers the best possible value for money. Unless there is an unexpected and significant drop in the prison population there are no plans to close further prison capacity in England and Wales in the next 3 years.

Prisons: Closures

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of savings to the public purse arising from the closure of prisons since 2010.

Andrew Selous: The capacity management has been a key element of the Ministry’s efficiency strategy over the past four years. This work ensures the most effective use of the prison estate and the closure of less efficient, uneconomic prison places where there is surplus capacity to do so. 16 Prisons have been closed and two prisons have been re-roled as Immigration Removal Centres since 2010. Our strategy of replacing old, uneconomic prison places with new, modern ones has reduced unit costs and delivered savings of around £155m per annum.

Crime: Victims

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the statement of 13 October 2014, Official Report, columns 13-14WS on 'Our Commitment to Victims', what the reasons are for guaranteeing victims' rights in law; and for what reasons his policy on this matter has changed since his Answer of 1 July 2014, Official Report, column 728, which was against such an approach.

Mike Penning: There has been no change in policy. Making the whole system work better for victims has been always been this Government’s priority. In our response to the “Getting it right for Victims and Witnesses” consultation, we said we would look at the options for a Victims’ Law but that reform must begin with a more effective Victims’ Code. Last year we published a new, comprehensive Victims’ Code to give victims clear entitlements, a louder voice in the criminal justice system and more effective redress. The next step will be to enshrine these rights in law.

Feltham Young Offender Institution

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many incidents of self-harm have been undertaken by children in the segregation unit at HM Young Offenders Institution Feltham in each of the last 12 months.

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many children have been held in the segregation unit at HM Young Offenders Institution Feltham in each of the last 12 months.

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (a) average and (b) longest stay was for children held on the segregation unit at HM Young Offenders Institution Feltham in the last 12 months.

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reasons children were segregated at HM Young Offenders Institution Feltham in each of the last 12 months.

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many children were (a) placed on basic regime and (b) confined to their cells for 23 hours a day or more at HM Young Offenders Institution Feltham in each of the last 12 months.

Andrew Selous: It has not been possible to answer the question within the allotted timeframe.I will write to the Hon. Member in due course.

Ministry of Defence

Armed Forces: Sexual Offences

Mrs Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on how many occasions in (a) 2013 and (b) 2014 commanding officers have requested legal advice following allegations of (i) sexual assault, (ii) exposure, (iii) voyeurism, (iv) sexual activity in a public lavatory and (v) other forms of sexual misconduct; and if he will make a statement.

Anna Soubry: Holding answer received on 30 October 2014



The information requested is given below. No allegations of sexual activity in a public lavatory resulted in a request for legal advice from a Commanding Officer. Offence20132014until 24 OctoberSexual Assault6548Exposure53Voyeurism41Other Sexual Misconduct6129Total13581

English Language: Education

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has spent on teaching English in each year since 2010.

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has spent on teaching English in each year since 2010.

Anna Soubry: Holding answer received on 30 October 2014



The table shows approximately how much the Department has spent in each Financial Year since 2010 on teaching English to Service personnel. It is difficult to give exact figures as, in some cases, the cost of English tuition cannot be separated from that for other tuition areas.  Financial Year £ million2010-112011-122012-132013-14Expenditure£1.637£1.667£1.695£1.735  In addition, for those who speak English as a second language the Ministry of Defence has spent the following amounts on ‘English Speakers of Other Languages’ assessments.  Financial Year2010-112011-122012-132013-14Expenditure£13,943£71,628£43,159£22,646

Bahrain

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent meetings he has had with Bahraini human rights advocates.

Mr Philip Dunne: Holding answer received on 25 November 2014



A list of all Ministerial meetings with external organisations is published on a quarterly basis at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=ministry-of-defence&publication_type=transparency-data

Pay

John Woodcock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Instant Rewards of what value were given to his Department's officials in (a) 2013 and (b) 2014 to date.

Anna Soubry: Holding answer received on 25 November 2014



The Ministry of Defence operates a Minor Award Scheme, which recognises performance over and above that is normally required in a specific task. The table below shows the number of awards and their total value for Financial Years (FY) 2012-13 and 2013-14. The information is not held by calendar year.YearFY 2012-13Total ValueFY 2013-14Total ValueNumber of Awards5,348£344,471.143,701£284,272.43The number of awards does not equate to the number of officials who received them; awards can be made to individuals or teams of individuals.

Argentina

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent discussions he has had with the Swedish government about the possible sale of Gripen fighters to Argentina.

Mr Philip Dunne: Holding answer received on 25 November 2014



None.

HMS Victory

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Written Statement of 24 October 2014, whether English Heritage agreed with (a) his decision to allow the Maritime Heritage Foundation to proceed with the next phase of the Project Design and (b) the granting of permission to recover at-risk surface items from the wreck site in accordance with the Project Design.

Anna Soubry: Holding answer received on 28 November 2014



In accordance with the Deed of Gift for HMS Victory 1744, English Heritage, as a member of the Advisory Group, provided advice on the acceptability of the actions proposed by the Maritime Heritage Foundation (MHF). That advice was used to guide development of the Project Design and assurances received from the MHF, enabled my rt hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence to give his consent to the next phase of the project.

Lord Lingfield

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what meetings he has had with Lord Lingfield since July 2014; who was present at each of those meetings; where each of those meetings was held; and what was discussed at each of those meetings.

Anna Soubry: Holding answer received on 28 November 2014



My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence has not met Lord Lingfield since July 2014.

Lord Lingfield

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will provide a list of the meetings the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Lord Astor of Hever, has had with Lord Lingfield since May 2010; who was present at each of those meetings; where each of those meetings was held; and what was discussed at each of those meetings.

Anna Soubry: Holding answer received on 28 November 2014



 I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 25 March 2014 (Official Report, Column 183W). The meetings were held on 21 January 2014 in Ministry of Defence Main Building; and 11 March 2014 in Portcullis House. 



Hansard Extract HMS Victory 25 March 2014
(Word Document, 24 KB)

HMS Victory

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department included a provision for oversight when it transferred the deed of gift for HMS Victory.

Anna Soubry: Holding answer received on 28 November 2014



I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 17 November 2014 to Question 212331. The Deed of Gift for HMS VICTORY (1744) transferred ownership of the vessel from the Ministry of Defence to the Maritime Heritage Foundation (MHF) and required MHF to have the consent of the Secretary of State for Defence for any actions proposed in respect of anything transferred.



Hansard \extract HMS Victory 17 November 2014
(Word Document, 26 KB)

Odyssey Marine Exploration

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what representations his Department has received from or on behalf of Odyssey Maritime Exploration about regulations pertaining to the management of shipwrecks.

Anna Soubry: Holding answer received on 28 November 2014



The Ministry of Defence has received no such representations.

Armed Forces: Education

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the announcement of 2 September 2014 on armed forces learning, what the cost was to (a) the public purse and (b) 10 Downing Street of (i) commissioning and (ii) producing the British Armed Forces Learning Resource 2014.

Anna Soubry: Holding answer received on 28 November 2014



The Armed Forces Learning Resource aims to inform and educate schoolchildren and teachers about the work of the British Armed Forces. Although the Ministry of Defence (MOD) provided relevant information, the Resource was produced and edited independently. A small number of hard copies were printed for distribution to delegates at the NATO Summit, for which MOD incurred a cost of approximately £600.

Nuclear Submarines

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will estimate the potential cost of procuring (a) 12, (b) 32 and (c) 48 Trident II D5 missile tubes for the Successor submarines.

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what contracts have been placed for launch tubes for sea-launched Trident nuclear missiles with General Dynamics Electric Boat Company in the US.

Mr Philip Dunne: Holding answer received on 27 November 2014



The missile tubes for the Successor Programme are being procured as part of the collaborative Common Missile Compartment (CMC) project with the US. General Dynamics Electric Boat has been awarded an $83.8 million contract modification by the US Department of Defense to continue development of the CMC. The contract provides funding for 17 missile tubes; four for the US submarine programme, one for a US shore test facility and 12 missile tubes for the Successor Programme. The 12 UK missile tubes’ share of this contract is estimated at $59 million. Costs beyond the first 17 tubes have yet to be agreed, and it would prejudice commercial interests to estimate costs at this stage. The Ministry of Defence is not planning to commit to further missile tubes prior to Main Gate in 2016.

Armed Forces: Housing

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many soldiers made redundant under the Army 2020 programme have been evicted from family quarters.

Anna Soubry: As part of the Army 2020 programme, 7,280 Service personnel were made redundant in tranches 1 to 3 of the Armed Forces Redundancy Programme and around 1,000 personnel were selected in the fourth and final tranche, the majority of whom will have left the Army by June 2015. All personnel selected receive at least six months notice, twelve if they did not apply for redundancy. On leaving the Armed Forces, personnel cease to be entitled to occupy Service Family Accommodation (SFA). While the Ministry of Defence will always be as flexible as possible in order to allow families the maximum time to secure alternative accommodation, on occasions it becomes necessary to proceed to eviction action in order that properties can be made available to entitled Service families. To date, a total of three Army personnel made redundant under the Armed Forces Redundancy Programme have been evicted from SFA.

Armed Forces: Housing

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what targets his Department sets for the time taken to make housing adaptations for wounded service personnel.

Anna Soubry: The Ministry of Defence aims to complete all housing adaptations for wounded service personnel in the shortest timescale possible.No targets are set for the completion of this work as every requirement is unique depending on the needs of the occupants.

Military Bases

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what airfields are owned by his Department; and how many flights took off from each such airfield in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2013-14 and (d) 2014-15 to date.

Anna Soubry: We have defined Ministry of Defence airfields as those capable of supporting fixed wing aircraft. The list of airfields is attached.



215979 Ministry of Defence Airfields
(Word Document, 81 KB)

Water

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to reduce water (a) usage and (b) bills in his Department; and if he will make a statement.

Anna Soubry: In the UK the majority of water consumed on Ministry of Defence (MOD) sites is supplied by three Aquatrine Public Private Partnership contracts. The water supplied under these contractual arrangements equates to 95% by volume of consumption on UK MOD sites.The MOD has reduced water consumption across its estate by 9% since 2010, thus exceeding a self-imposed target to achieve a 7% reduction in estate-wide water consumption and corresponding bills by 2015.Work is continuing throughout the MOD estate to embed water use awareness, and achieve further reductions in water consumption. The Defence Infrastructure Organisation is implementing a Water Consumption Reduction programme, which will target 150 high demand sites to identify further water efficiency measures and improve the efficiency of water use.

Procurement

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many new Ministry of Defence HQ contracts were for under £1 million in 2013-14.

Mr Philip Dunne: In financial year 2013-14 the Ministry of Defence awarded 1,889 contracts with a value of less than £1 million.

Procurement

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many new Ministry of Defence HQ contracts were placed in 2013-14; what the value of those contracts was; how many on the bid basis were (a) competitive and (b) non-competitive contracts.

Mr Philip Dunne: Information on contracts placed by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), including the nature of those contracts, is published on gov.uk as part of the MOD trade, industry and contracts statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mod-industry-trade-and-contracts-2014Table 1.01.06 'New contracts placed by type' shows that the MOD awarded 2,328 contracts in 2013-14, with a value of £6,205 million. Of these, 39% were awarded on a competitive basis, and 56% were non-competitive. The remainder were mainly instances where a contract has been let as a Terms of Business Agreement.

Fuels

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department spent on each type of fuel in 2013-14; and who the suppliers were.

Mr Philip Dunne: The majority of Ground, Aviation and Marine fuel consumed by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is purchased under the bulk fuel contracts managed by the Defence Fuel Services Team, part of Defence Equipment and Support. The expenditure against these contracts for financial year 2013-14, in £ million, is shown in the following tables. Ground FuelsSupplierDieselUnleadedGrand Total Certas Energy12.300.1212.42GB Oils9.670.049.71Hall Fuels9.440.5610.00Harvest11.980.1212.10Henty2.380.032.41LCC0.770.130.90Scottish Fuels1.080.091.17WFSCORP0.96-0.96Grand Total48.58 49.67  Notes: (1) During the financial year Certas Energy took over GB Oils and Scottish Fuels and WFSCORP took over Henty. These companies continue to trade under their original names.(2) Other parts of the MOD purchase ground fuels but this information is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. Aviation and Marine  Supplier AviationF44 (Marine Aviation) F76 (Marine) Grand TotalBP Oil International46.21-26.5072.71CEPSA20.51-26.0146.52Chevron-16.09-16.09HETCO33.30--33.30MOH11.286.1219.4936.89Q814.91--14.91Shell105.21-53.58158.79World Fuels14.31--14.31Grand Total245.7322.21125.58393.52   Outside of these contracts the Front Line Commands purchased £137.45 million of aviation fuel in financial year 2013-14. These purchases occur when an aircraft refuels at a non-MOD site.

Defence: Procurement

Sir Peter Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October 2014 to Question 209332, by what mechanisms his Department assesses the effectiveness of its communications to industry of its future requirements.

Mr Philip Dunne: The membership and structure of the Defence Suppliers Forum (DSF) and its respective sub-committees are kept under review to ensure it is representative of the Ministry of Defence's (MOD) suppliers. Feedback from industry indicates that it continues to represent a valuable mechanism for engaging with the MOD on current and future priorities and requirements.In addition the Industry days organised by the Department and/or domains are usually based on business cases that state the objectives and benefits of the event and which require evaluation of success. Some examples of key outcomes of an event include an increase in industry awareness of the aims and developments of the procurement strategy, an increase in MOD understanding of the key themes and issues faced by industry, and the early identification of potential risks to the strategy. The success of the event is then evaluated both in terms of the level of interest expressed by industry in the event, and the level of understanding and buy-in determined through a simple event questionnaire.The MOD monitors the number of supplier and buyer enquires received via the Defence Contracts Online Portal. The latest available figures show that between January and July 2014, the total number of queries received was nearly 3,500. During this period, nearly 1,200 tender and contract notices were advertised on the portal.

Katrice Lee

Mr Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent progress has been made in respect of Operation BUTE, the Royal Military Police inquiry into the disappearance of Katrice Lee in 1981.

Mr Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will authorise the release of case files relating to the investigation of the disappearance of Katrice Lee to her family; and if he will make a statement.

Anna Soubry: Our thoughts and sympathies remain with Katrice Lee's family. The Royal Military Police continue to investigate Katrice's disappearance from Paderborn in Germany in 1981. As the investigation, known as Operation Bute, is still underway, I am unable to comment further on progress at this time. The original case files form part of this investigation; as such they can be considered for disclosure only when the investigation has been concluded. Liaison officers from the Royal Military Police remain in contact with Katrice's family to ensure that they are kept up to date about the investigation's progress.

Department for Work and Pensions

Marriage Guidance

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps his Department has taken to support husbands and wives with relationship problems to enable families to stay together.

Steve Webb: This Government attaches a high priority to supporting couple relationships and committed a dedicated fund of £30 million for relationship support over the Spending Review period (2011-2015). We are funding a range of services through a number of expert providers to deliver relationship support provision, including preventative support targeted at couples at risk of family breakdown; activities to encourage the take-up of relationship support; and counselling for couples who may be experiencing difficulties. We have also introduced a Family Test which will mean that all new relevant domestic policies will need to be assessed for their impact on the family.

Universal Credit

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when non-UK citizens in pathfinder areas will be able to claim universal credit.

Esther McVey: Holding answer received on 28 November 2014



 The Universal Credit Gateway Conditions will continue to include a criterion that the claimant must be a British citizen who has continuously lived in the UK for the last two years

Catering

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department has spent on catering and hospitality since May 2010.

Steve Webb: Departmental expenditure on Hospitality from the start of the 2010 financial year up to 31st October 2014, the latest date for which information is available, is shown in the graph attached. Expenditure on catering is not specifically identified but expenditure on Working Lunches and Refreshments is held and this information is also included in the graph. Expenditure should be seen in the context of the number of staff employed by the Department, Currently 79,514 (as at 31 October 2014), which works out at a cost per head of £1.45 per year.



Catering & Hospitality May 2010-31 Oct 2014
(PDF Document, 20.17 KB)

Universal Credit

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he will set out his plans for the transfer onto universal credit of those people not expected to be on universal credit by 2019.

Mr Mark Harper: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave to the Rt. Hon Member for East Ham, Stephen Timms on 20 November 2014 to Question UIN 214800/214801/214802

Universal Credit

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 13 of the summary of the National Audit Office report, Universal credit: progress update, published on 26 November 2014, what contingency plans are in place to cover the £2.8 billion additional staff cost necessary to roll-out the current service for universal credit if the digital service is delayed.

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 2.12 of the National Audit Office report, Universal credit: progress update, published on 26 November 2014, by what date his Department plans to develop the contingency plans for the possibility that the digital service for universal credit is delayed or fails.

Mr Mark Harper: As the NAO report makes clear, the £2.8bn figure is not a realistic assessment of the costs of running Universal Credit on a completely rolled out basis. Contingency plans are developed on an ongoing basis as part of the programme’s approach to integrated planning and risk management. The plans which cover all key areas of programme development and delivery are regularly assessed and refreshed as part of our ongoing governance of the Programme.

Universal Credit

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 1.12 of the National Audit Office report, Universal credit: progress update, published on 26 November 2014, in which month he plans to produce the more detailed outline business case required by HM Treasury.

Mr Mark Harper: Our current plan is to produce the Universal Credit Outline Business Case during 2015 to reflect the development of the Digital Service and to inform the Spending Review. This will be finalised and submitted for formal HM Treasury approval.

Funerals: Low Incomes

Mr Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of pauper's funerals in each of the last three years; and what steps his Department is taking to support families on low incomes with the costs of funerals.

Steve Webb: My department does not collect data on the number of Local Authority funerals. The Social Fund Funeral Payment scheme continues to provide help towards a simple, respectful, low-cost funeral and in 2013/14, over 33,000 awards were made worth £44.7 million, with an average award of £1,347. Social Fund Budgeting Loans are also available to those on income related benefits to cover costs relating to funeral expenses.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Water

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to reduce water (a) usage and (b) bills in her Department; and if she will make a statement.

Dan Rogerson: Core Defra has reduced water consumption and costs through investment in water saving measures such as flow restrictors, rainwater harvesting, low flush toilet cisterns and waterless urinals. Smart metering also enables Core Defra to monitor and target excessive consumption, identify leaks and ensure building systems are operating to optimum efficiency.  Rationalisation of the estate has also delivered significant savings. For example, since April 2012 core Defra has reduced its London estate from four to two properties, making more efficient use of space and reducing water consumption as part of the overall strategy.

Department for Communities and Local Government

Floods

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much of the Business Rates Relief Fund for flooded businesses has been (a) allocated to local authorities and (b) received by businesses.

Kris Hopkins: I refer the hon. Member to the flood recovery progress report published on 27 November, a copy of which is in the Library of the House.

Floods

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much of the Council Tax Relief Fund for people whose homes have been flooded has been (a) allocated to local authorities and (b) received by residents.

Kris Hopkins: On 27 November we published the Winter 2013-14 Severe Weather Recovery Progress Report. This provides an update on the full range of support which has been provided to help communities, householders and businesses recover from last winter’s severe weather. The Report is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/winter-2013-to-2014-severe-weather-recovery-progress-report

Local Government Finance

Andrew Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of the funding provided to local government by central government was ring-fenced in each of the last three years.

Kris Hopkins: A recent National Audit Office report on Local Government Funding stated that, adjusting for recent changes in local government duties as far as possible, due to changes made by DCLG since 2010 the share of ringfenced revenue funding fell from 7 per cent to less than 1 per cent. This figure has remained at less than one percent for the last three years.

Water

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to reduce water (a) usage and (b) bills in his Department; and if he will make a statement.

Kris Hopkins: The Department for Communities and Local Government has made significant reductions to both its water usage and associated bills. Total water use has been reduced by 50% since 2009-10, and the number of its offices falling within good and best practice office water benchmarks has been increased from 28% to 73% during the same period. These improvements have primarily been achieved by installing efficiency devices such as tap aerators, flow control valves, through leak reduction work, and by encouraging staff and facilities managers to adopt more water efficient behaviours. In taking this action, the Department has reduced its annual water bill by £13,000 since 2009-10, and continues to work towards identifying even greater efficiencies.

Local Government Finance

Andy Sawford: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will discuss with his Ministerial colleagues measures to ensure that, where practical, analysis submitted by other government departments at future spending reviews includes sub-national analysis by individual local authority or local authority type.

Kris Hopkins: Robust analysis, at an appropriate spatial scale, is an important part of the policy making and delivery process.

Local Government Finance

Mark Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many responses were submitted to his Department's consultation on local welfare provision in 2015-16 (a) in total and (b) from local authorities.

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many responses his Department received in response to the consultation entitled, Local welfare provision in 2015 to 2016.

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many responses his Department received in response to the consultation entitled, Local welfare provision in 2015 to 2016 from (a) organisations, (b) individuals, (c) local councils and (d) hon. Members.

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many of the responses to his Department's consultation on Local Welfare Provision 2015-16 expressed a preference for each of the options 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many of the responses to his Department's consultation on Local Welfare Provision 2015-16 explicitly called for funding for local welfare assistance schemes to be reinstated.

Kris Hopkins: The Government received more than 5,000 responses to the consultation which are being considered alongside the review by the Department for Work and Pensions into existing provision. The Government will make a decision based on this analysis in time for the provisional local government finance settlement in December 2014.

Welfare Assistance Schemes

Mark Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the performance of local welfare assistance schemes on preventing and reducing homelessness.

Kris Hopkins: The Department has not made any assessment of the performance of local welfare assistance schemes which are administered by local authorities. The Department for Work and Pensions published a wide ranging review into existing local welfare provision on 5 November.

Landlords: Cornwall

Sarah Newton: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance his Department has provided to Cornwall Council to help tackle rogue landlords since 2010.

Brandon Lewis: The Department published guidance in 2012 for all local housing authorities on tackling rogue landlords in the private rented sector and this can be found at:https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/7575/2206919.pdfRevised guidance will be published in due course. In addition to advice on dealing with the small minority of bad landlords in the sector, it will also include guidance on improving the sector more generally, including prosecuting landlords for breaches of housing and planning legislation, pressing for the maximum penalties where landlords are convicted of an offence and the responsibilities of letting agents.

Mental Health Services

Mr Bob Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment his Department has made of the progress made by local government in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England to sign up to the principles of the Crisis Care Concordat.

Kris Hopkins: The Department for Communities and Local Government has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

HM Treasury

Government Securities

Andrew Gwynne: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Annex to the communiqué published following the G20 Summit in Brisbane in November 2014, what steps the Government is taking to implement the call for the inclusion of strengthened collective action and pari passu clauses in international sovereign bonds and for their use to be actively promoted by the international community and private sector.

Andrea Leadsom: The Government strongly supports the promotion of strengthened collective action and pari passu clauses in international sovereign bonds, and has called on the International Monetary Fund to take an active role in doing so. The Government hopes that the text in the G20 Communiqué will lend momentum to this process.

Legal Costs

Sadiq Khan: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much his Department has spent on external legal fees relating to the case at the European Court of Justice on the cap on bankers' bonuses.

Andrea Leadsom: The total cost of external legal fees relating to the legal challenge and connected advice is £42, 857.

Water

Simon Kirby: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to reduce water (a) usage and (b) bills in his Department; and if he will make a statement.

Andrea Leadsom: HMT installed water saving taps in the toilets in 2012 and installed additional water meters in August 2014. The additional water meters will measure water usage in the tea points, showers and toilets to enable us more accurately target water saving measures. This will lead to a reduction in bills.

Tobacco: Smuggling

Mark Garnier: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of standardised packaging of tobacco products on the illicit trade in tobacco.

Priti Patel: HMRC has carried out a “futures analysis” to identify the potential impact the introduction of Standardised Packaging could have on the illicit trade in tobacco. This assessment has been shared with the Department of Health to inform the development of Government policy.   The assessment is currently being reviewed taking into consideration additional information provided during the Government consultation.

Tobacco: Smuggling

Mark Garnier: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the trade in illicit tobacco of the forthcoming ban on menthol cigarettes and 10-packs of cigarettes.

Priti Patel: The HMRC/Border Force strategy to tackle tobacco smuggling is in place and would adapt to any changes in risks as it has done over many years.   HMRC and other enforcement agencies will adjust their response as necessary, to reflect any new risks.

Welfare Tax Credits

Mr Mike Weir: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the average total processing time of applications for tax credits where the assessing officer has issued a request for additional documentation in respect of single person status and tax credits have been suspended pending examination of that documentation.

Priti Patel: The vast majority of undeclared partner interventions are carried out at the post award stage and do not affect the processing time for new claims, therefore HMRC do not hold the data requested.

Welfare Tax Credits

Mr Mike Weir: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what guidance is provided to officials processing applications for tax credits on the documentation necessary to verify an applicant's single status, where HM Revenue and Customs contends that there has been an unreported change of circumstances.

Priti Patel: The guidance issued to HMRC compliance officers on undeclared partner interventions is published at Chapter 15 of the Claimant Compliance Manual. This manual is available at:   http://home.inrev.gov.uk/ccmmanual/PP_ccm15000.htm

Venture Capital

Dr William McCrea: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the amount of funding invested in small and medium-sized enterprises through venture capital trusts in (a) Northern Ireland and (b) the UK in each of the last three years.

Mr David Gauke: The precise information requested is not available at reasonable cost. Venture Capital Trusts raised £440 million in 2013-14, £400 million in 2012-13 and £325 million in 2011-12 to fund their investments. HM Revenue & Customs Statistics on VCTs are published annually and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/venture-capital-trusts-statistics

Air Passenger Duty

Dr William McCrea: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of air passenger duty on tourism in (a) Northern Ireland and (b) the rest of the UK.

Priti Patel: I refer the Hon. Member to the answers that the previous Financial Secretary to the Treasury gave to the Hon. Member for Belfast South on 7 April 2014 – Column 16W, the Hon. Member for East Londonderry on 7 July 2014 – Column 120W, and the answer given to the Hon. Member for Bury South on 22 July 2014 – Column 1094W   http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm140407/text/140407w0001.htm#1404082000413   http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmhansrd/cm140707/text/140707w0005.htm   http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmhansrd/cm140722/text/140722w0003.htm

Business: Northern Ireland

Dr William McCrea: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to increase access to bank lending for businesses in Northern Ireland.

Andrea Leadsom: The Government has taken significant action to increase bank lending to businesses throughout the UK, including through the Funding for Lending Scheme, and through supporting non-bank lending channels via the British Business Bank.   The Government is also implementing further major reforms to boost competition in the small and medium sized enterprise (SME) lending market through the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill; most notably the measures to improve access to SME credit information and to match SMEs rejected for finance with challenger banks and alternative finance providers that are looking to offer finance.   Furthermore, in Autumn 2013 a joint United Kingdom and Northern Ireland Ministerial Task Force was set up to look at ways to promote lending and increase support specifically for businesses in Northern Ireland.

Members: Correspondence

Steve Rotheram: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will respond to the letter of 17 November 2014 from the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton.

Mr David Gauke: The Hon. Member will receive a reply in due course.

Tax Avoidance and Evasion

Mr David Lammy: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the annual cost to the public purse of tax avoidance and tax evasion.

Mr David Gauke: HMRC publish estimates of the tax gap in Measuring Tax Gaps each year. The 2014 edition (published on 16 October 2014) presents a time series of tax gaps from 2005-06 to 2012-13, which can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/measuring-tax-gaps   Measuring Tax Gaps includes an illustrative breakdown of the tax gap by behaviour, including avoidance and evasion. In 2012-13 avoidance was estimated to cost the exchequer £3.1 billion, and evasion to cost £4.1 billion.

Foreign Exchange

Julian Sturdy: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of changing the criminal law to allow sanctions for the misconduct of financial traders identified as having manipulated the foreign exchange market.

Andrea Leadsom: The Government is committed to taking action to ensure that the criminal regime for financial market abuse is strong and robust. In September 2014 the Government consulted on whether the regulatory regime put in place for LIBOR should be extended to seven other major benchmarks, based on recommendations from the Fair and Effective Markets Review. This regime includes the criminal offence of manipulating a ‘relevant benchmark’ either by making misleading statements or by creating a false or misleading impression of the value of investments that could affect such a benchmark. The list of benchmarks included the dominant benchmark for the foreign exchange market, WM/Reuters 4pm London Closing Spot Rate. The Government will announce its response to this consultation shortly.

Annuities

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he expects the Financial Conduct Authority to publish its thematic review of the annuity market.

Andrea Leadsom: The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its first round of thematic work looking at the annuity market in February this year and, based on the findings of this work, launched a Retirement Income Market Study to look at how competition is working for consumers across this market. In light of the pensions reforms announced at Budget in March 2014, the FCA updated the scope of the market study to be more forward looking.   The FCA also decided to conduct a further thematic review into annuities and is expected to publish both the interim findings of the Retirement Income Market Study and the thematic work on annuities before the end of the year.

Written Questions: Government Responses

Lilian Greenwood: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he intends to answer Question 215333 tabled for answer on 24 November 2014; and what the reasons are for the time taken to answer.

Danny Alexander: I have done so.

Tobacco: Smuggling

Mark Garnier: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps HM revenue and Customs is taking to tackle the tobacco tax gap.

Priti Patel: Since 2000, HMRC’s tobacco fraud strategy has reduced the tax gap for cigarettes from 22% in 2000/01 to 10% in 2013/14, and the tax gap for hand-rolling tobacco from 61% to 39% in the same period.  The current strategy was launched in 2011 and adopts a holistic approach to tackling the problem overseas, at the border and within the UK. This includes continual monitoring of intelligence to assess and respond to changes in criminal behaviours, partnership working with other enforcement agencies, such as Trading Standards, and use of a wide range of interventions and sanctions.  The strategy can be accessed on the HMRC website: http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageImport_ShowContent&id=HMCE_PROD1_031246&propertyType=document

Department for Energy and Climate Change

Renewable Energy

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the total value was of bids received during the first established technologies Contracts for Difference auction for (a) landfill gas, (b) onshore wind, (c) solar photovoltaic, (d) hydro, (e) energy from waste and (f) sewage gas.

Matthew Hancock: The Department for Energy and Climate Change has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Timber: Waste

Charlotte Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment he has made of the amount of wood waste in the UK which is suitable for incineration in biomass power stations.

Amber Rudd: The Department for Energy and Climate Change has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Northern Ireland Office

Electronic Government

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps her Department is taking to ensure its services are available online; and if she will make a statement.

Mrs Theresa Villiers: My Department does not run services open to a broad range of the general public, only certain specialist security related schemes which would not be suited to on-line provision. However, general information is routinely provided by the Northern Ireland Office to the public via the Gov.uk website.

Parades: Belfast

Dr William McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, when she last met the Parades Commission to discuss the situation at Twaddell Avenue, Belfast.

Mrs Theresa Villiers: I last met representatives of the Parades Commission on 29 July 2014. This meeting formed part of my wider consultation on my proposal for a Panel on Parading in North Belfast.I have had no discussions with the Commission regarding the ongoing protest parades in this area. These are operational matters for the Commission, acting independently of Government.

Terrorism

Bob Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what recent assessment she has made of the terrorist threat from dissident republicans.

Mrs Theresa Villiers: The security of UK citizens remains this Government’s highest priority. While the threat level in Northern Ireland remains at Severe, excellent co-operation between PSNI and its partners has disrupted the activity of violent dissident republicans. There have been a number of significant arrests, charges and convictions which are helping to suppress the threat.

Department for Culture Media and Sport

Water

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to reduce water (a) usage and (b) bills in his Department; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs Helen Grant: DCMS is a tenant of HMRC at 100 Parliament Street and responsibility for water usage rests with them.

Flying Scotsman

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will place in the Library a copy of the full report by First Class Partnerships on restoration of the Flying Scotsman conducted for the Science Museum Group and dated 27 February 2014.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The Final Report on the Independent Review of the proposed programme of works in the restoration of the Flying Scotsman Locomotive 4427 by First Class Partnerships Rail Consultants dated 27 February 2013 is published on the website of the National Railway Museum:http://www.nrm.org.uk/~/media/Files/NRM/PDF/NRM%20Flying%20Scotsman%20Final%20Report.pdf?keywords=first+class+partnerships.The Report contained certain redactions relating to information which is regarded as being commercially sensitive in accordance with section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘FOIA’). Further redactions within the Report were made to protect the personal data of individuals in accordance with section 40 of FOIA and the Museum’s obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998.

S4C

Mr David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to meet the (a) chairman and (b) chief executive of Sianel 4 Cymru before 31 March 2015.

Mr David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with Sianel 4 Cymru on future funding for that organisation.

Mr David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he or his predecessor last met the (a) Chairman and (b) Chief Executive of Sianel 4 Cymru.

Mr Edward Vaizey: There are no current plans for the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to meet with the chairman and chief executive of Sianel 4 Cymru before 31 March 2015. However, he previously met the Chairman and the Chief Executive, as well as other S4C representatives, during a visit to S4C’s Headquarters in Llanishen, Cardiff on 17th July this year. The previous Secretary of State, Maria Miller, also met with both Huw Jones and Ian Jones on 13th November 2013. In these meetings future funding was discussed. All such meetings are detailed in the Department’s regularly published transparency returns: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?keywords=dcms+ministerial+meetings&publication_filter_option=transparency-data&topics%5B%5D=all&departments%5B%5D=department-for-culture-media-sport&official_document_status=all&world_locations%5B%5D=all&from_date=&to_date=&commit=Refresh+results Officials from DCMS are in regular contact with S4C equivalents on a range of issues. S4C, as with all publicly funded bodies, has its Exchequer funding set out to the end of the current SR period. This means that in 2015/16 S4C will continue to receive £6.787m of funding from DCMS. In addition to this, the current operating agreement between the BBC and S4C sets out further licence fee funding for 2016-17 (£74.5m).

Broadband

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to promote competition in the provision of superfast broadband.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The UK has a highly competitive broadband market. Superfast broadband is currently available to 78% of UK premises, up from 45% in 2010. BT’s wholesale access products are open to all Internet Service Providers, meaning that consumers have a range of retail Internet Service providers to buy broadband services from. In addition to BT, KCom and Virgin Media, a growing number of both fixed and wireless providers are making investments in competing broadband infrastructure. In September 2012 the Government announced a package of measures to reduce the barriers to deployment of superfast broadband, reducing red tape and bureaucracy to enable communications providers to deploy competing networks.In August 2014 the Government consulted on the objectives for a long term digital communications infrastructure strategy to ensure the UK maintains its competitive position. We expect the strategy to be published early in 2015.

Broadband

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of the UK population has taken-up super-fast broadband, excluding cable.

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of the UK population has access to superfast broadband.

Mr Edward Vaizey: According to Ofcom’s Communications Market Report 2014, by the end of Q1 2014 over a quarter (26.7%) of broadband connections were superfast. A breakdown between cable and non-cable premises was not given. The same publication reported that as of June 2014 superfast broadband was available to 78% of premises.

Broadband

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of the UK population has taken-up super-fast broadband that has been funded or partially funded by BDUK or a local authority.

Mr Edward Vaizey: Ofcom is responsible for monitoring broadband markets and publishes Superfast broadband coverage and take-up data by local authority area on their UK Fixed Broadband Map. The 2013 edition is available at: http://maps.ofcom.org.uk/broadband/ Ofcom’s 2014 Infrastructure Report is expected to be published in early December. However, the data is not normally available by population as the usual measurement is by premises and the analysis by project is not currently available.

Mobile Phones: Theft

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will have discussions with mobile telephone companies on measures to prevent victims of mobile telephone theft having to pay excessive bills on their stolen telephones.

Mr Edward Vaizey: I have invited the major mobile network operators to a round table meeting in January to confirm details of the liability caps they will offer for unauthorised use of lost or stolen ‘phones.We are tackling the problem of high bills when ‘phones are lost or stolen through the Telecommunications Consumer Action Plan.

Telecommunications: Kilmarnock

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of households in Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency are covered by (a) mobile telephone signal and (b) broadband.

Mr Edward Vaizey: Mobile and broadband data is available for East Ayrshire local authority, but not at a constituency level.According to the most recent figures from Ofcom in 2013 in East Ayrshire, 89.0% of premises could get a 2G signal from three mobile operators and 99.9% from at least one of them, and 8.2% of premises could get a 3G signal from all four mobile operators and 74.3% from at least one of them - http://d2a9983j4okwzn.cloudfront.net/downloads/ofcom-uk-mobile-coverage-data-2013.csvOfcom’s Communications Market Report 2014 states that current generation broadband is available to close to 100% of UK premises and Next Generation Access (NGA) broadband is available to 78% of premises in the UK and to 64% of premises in Scotland. Ofcom reported that NGA broadband availability in East Ayrshire in spring 2013 was about 37.2% - http://d2a9983j4okwzn.cloudfront.net/downloads/ofcom-uk-broadband-speed-data-2013.csvOfcom will be publishing its annual UK Infrastructure Report shortly which will include more recent data on levels of mobile and broadband coverage.

Broadband: Kilmarnock

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will discuss with the Scottish Government steps to increase progress on the roll out of superfast broadband in Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency.

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will discuss with ministers of the Scottish government how faster progress can be made on making broadband available to rural communities in Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency.

Mr Edward Vaizey: Superfast broadband has already been made available to over 110,000 premises in Scotland and we are working closely with the Scottish Government and suppliers to maintain the pace of delivery which has increased to an average across the whole of the UK to 40,000 premises a week.The roll-out in Scotland is on schedule to deliver superfast broadband to 70% coverage to some of the most remote and challenging locations in the Highlands & Islands and 95% to the Rest of Scotland by the end of 2017.

Battle of Waterloo

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress has been made on plans to hold events in Scotland to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo.

Mr Edward Vaizey: Waterloo 200 Ltd are the umbrella organisation supported by the Government to oversee the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. There are a number of events taking place in Scotland. These so far include Waterloo related Regimental exhibitions at the National Army Museum in Edinburgh and at the Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen, a Black Watch Regimental Muster in Aberfeldy, a commemorative event at the Waterloo Monumnet at Penielhuegh and a Royal Scots Dragoon Guards march down the Royal Mile in Edinburgh followed by a service of Commemoration in Canongate.In addition to this, the Heritage Lottery fund has awarded a grant to a project in Kilmarnock focusing on the Battle of Waterloo and the life of local Kilmarnock man, Charles Ewart and his capture of Napoleon's standard.

Department of Health

Diabetes

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of clinical commissioning group budgets is allocated to diabetes research, awareness and prevention in 2014-15.

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of clinical commissioning group budgets is allocated to prostate cancer research, awareness and prevention in 2014-15.

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of clinical commissioning group budgets is allocated to ovarian cancer research, awareness and prevention in 2014-15.

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of clinical commissioning group budgets is allocated to heart disease research, awareness and prevention in 2014-15.

Dr Daniel Poulter: National Health Service funding has risen in each year of this parliament and is £12.7 billion higher in cash terms in 2014-15 than in 2010-11. Health funding will again grow in real terms in 2015-16, which means an additional £2.1 billion.   NHS England has responsibility for clinical commissioning group (CCG) allocations and, as a result of Government protecting the overall health budget for NHS England, NHS England has in turn ensured that all CCGs are receiving a funding increase at least matching inflation, as predicted at the time of the announcement, in 2014-15 and 2015-16.   The funding that CCGs receive is not ring fenced and as such it is up to CCGs at a local level to decide how to allocate their funding in regards to awareness and prevention.   The Government’s Mandate to NHS England requires it to ensure that the new commissioning system promotes and supports participation by NHS organisations and NHS patients in research funded by both commercial and non-commercial organisations. This includes ensuring payment of treatment costs for NHS patients taking part in research funded by Government and Research Charity partner organisations. The main Government funders of health research are the National Institute for Health Research and the Medical Research Council.

Mental Illness

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve public knowledge of mental health conditions.

Norman Lamb: The Department has invested £16 million in the Time to Change programme. Time to Change is a national high-profile marketing and media campaign, aimed at reaching 29 million adults, to increase public understanding of mental illness and change their attitudes and behaviour towards mental health problems.   All Government Departments have signed up to the Time to Change programme, and on 10 October, World Mental Health Day, all FTSE 100 companies were challenged to sign up to the programme. Time to Change statistics show significant reductions in those with mental health conditions reporting discrimination within several life areas, including their social life and securing a job.   In February this year, Time to Change hosted the Time to Talk Day which aimed to get people talking about mental health issues. Over 1 million conversations about mental health took place on the day.   The Government has committed to continue funding the Time to Change programme. Public Health England (PHE) has been working with employers in supporting employees and raising awareness through the workplace, using tools such as the Workplace Wellbeing Charter.   PHE’s social marketing team are working to embed mental health within their work. PHE will include stress and sleep as key determinants of good mental health in future social marketing campaigns, and emotional wellbeing will be included in the digital information service for parents of babies and young children.

Mental Health Services

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent estimate he has made of the average waiting time for treatments for mental health conditions.

Norman Lamb: The Department’s most recent estimate of the average waiting times for some mental health services is contained in the impact assessment dated 25 September 2014 which accompanies the Government’s new five-year plan for mental health, Achieving Better Access to Mental Health Services by 2020 published on 8 October 2014. Achieving Better Access to Mental Health Services by 2020 sets out the immediate actions we will take this year and next to achieve better access and waiting times.   £40 million in additional funding has been identified to enable change in the current financial year, and a further £80 million will be freed up for 2015-16 to support implementation of waiting times standards in mental health services.   The Department and NHS England will work together with mental health system partners to develop detailed proposals for the introduction of further access and waiting time standards from 2016 onwards.   Information on mean and median waiting times for the Improving Access to Psychological Therapy (IAPT) programme by clinical commissioning group in 2013-14 is attached.   The IAPT dataset did not exist before April 2012 and reliable data became available from April 2013 onwards.   



Mean/median waiting times: IAPT services by CCG
(Excel SpreadSheet, 28.83 KB)

Dupuytren's Contracture

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he and officials in his Department will meet with members of the British Dupuytrens Society to discuss treatments for that condition currently not available on the NHS.

Norman Lamb: Since 1 April 2013 NHS England has been responsible for securing high quality health outcomes for patients in England.   The symptoms of Dupuytren's contracture are often mild and painless and do not require treatment. However, for a small number of patients, surgery may be beneficial. In November 2013, NHS England published a commissioning policy statement for surgery for the condition. Although the policy sets out that surgery is not routinely funded, it also sets out criteria by which patients with the most serious symptoms may be eligible for treatment which are:   - the patient has a 30 degree fixed flexion deformity at either the metacarpophalanageal joint or proximal interphalangeal joint; and - the patient cannot flatten their fingers or palm on a table; or - there has been rapid progression over a few months.   If a patient does not meet the criteria, their clinician may submit an individual funding request to NHS England.   In addition, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published an interventional procedures (IP) guideline on treatment with needle fasciotomy in 2004 and an IP guideline on radiation therapy in 2010. These guidelines advise commissioners on the safety and effectiveness of procedures.

Thalidomide

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on financial support for victims of thalidomide.

Norman Lamb: Departmental officials have regular, ongoing discussions with colleagues in the devolved administrations on the issue of Thalidomide. Following a meeting with the Thalidomide Trust on 23 June 2014, I wrote to Manuela Schwesig, Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, on behalf of all four UK Governments, asking if she would meet with the Trust.

Influenza: Vaccination

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to encourage the uptake of the influenza vaccine by people with learning disabilities.

Jane Ellison: The 2014-15 Winter Flu plan, and the tripartite Annual Flu letter of 28 April 2014 which accompanied it, stated that those with learning disabilities are eligible for free flu vaccination.   NHS England has recognised that uptake of flu immunisation amongst people with learning disabilities needs improvement. As a consequence, NHS England has clarified with general practitioners that all people with learning disabilities are eligible for a free flu immunisation. This information has been shared with practices, Clinical Commissioning Groups and Area Teams.   NHS England commissioners have been asked to contact social care providers and Special Schools to emphasise that people with learning disabilities are entitled to a free flu immunisation. In support of this, template letters for schools and social care providers have been developed and made available.

Social Services: Complaints

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many complaints per 100,000 people were received by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) from (a) members of the public and (b) staff about CQC- regulated services in each social services authority area in England in (i) the last year and (ii) the last five years.

Norman Lamb: The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. The CQC has advised that the information is not collected by 100,000 population, but has provided information on the number of complaints in the attached tables. 



Complaints received by CQC by local authority area
(Word Document, 66.04 KB)

Mental Health Services: Ethnic Groups

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to tackle inequalities in mental health services in the black and minority ethnic community.

Norman Lamb: This Government is committed to tackling inequalities in access to mental health services. This commitment is set out in our mental health action plan Closing the Gap, as one of 25 key priorities for change in mental health, published in January this year.   The 2014-15 mandate to NHS England makes clear that everyone should have timely access to the mental health services they need.   Closing the Gap recognises that people from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities are less likely to access psychological therapies and we are working with the sector to find out why this is and what we can do to change it.   Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme is working with a number of BME groups to promote wider access of the service to all sections of the community. A grant scheme will be shortly launched to encourage community-based interventions to increase uptake of talking therapies, including from BME groups.   In 2012-13, the Department funded Time to Change to undertake a mental health anti-stigma and discrimination programme focused on working with African and Caribbean communities, ring-fencing 25% of the grants fund for work with BME communities, and building partnerships with BME organisations.   The Crisis Care Concordat, launched in February 2014, details how we plan to improve emergency support for people in mental health crisis across the country. It is part of a far-reaching new agreement between police, mental health trusts and paramedics. The Concordat acknowledges that there are particular difficulties to achieving better mental health outcomes for people in BME communities.

Social Services: Pay

Mr Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will include in the Social Care Commitment, a statement about employer compliance with minimum wage legislation.

Norman Lamb: To make the Social Care Commitment, employers must first commit to ensuring good employment practice. Employers are therefore agreeing to offer fair terms and conditions to all of their employees and to take active steps to ensure that their employment practice complies with employment legislation, including paying the National Minimum Wage as a minimum, and provides additional benefits or enhanced terms and conditions where possible. This is included under the terms and conditions of acceptance of the Social Care Commitment.

Social Services

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department provides to local authorities on adjudication of disputes over who is responsible for the care of an individual.

Norman Lamb: The Department has issued comprehensive guidance - “Ordinary Residence: Guidance on the identification of the ordinary residence of people in need of community care services, England”. This guidance provides information and advice for local authorities on determining ordinary residence for people requiring local community care services. The guidance also includes information on the process with which to refer a dispute to the Secretary of State.   The latest guidance (published October 2013) is attached to this reply.   Under the Care Act 2014 new statutory guidance will come into force in April 2015.   



Ordinary Residence- October 2014
(PDF Document, 615.46 KB)

Diabetes

Mr Adrian Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many hospital admissions for (a) hypoglycaemia and (b) diabetic ketoacidosis there were in each local commissioning area of people aged (i) 17 and under, (ii) between 17 and 65 and (iii) 65 and over in each of the last 10 years.

Jane Ellison: The attached table shows finished admission episodes (FAEs) with a primary diagnosis of hypoglycaemia and diabetic ketoacidosis by primary care trust (PCT) of residence for ages (i) 0 to 17, (ii) 18 to 64 and (iii) 65 and over from 2003-04 to 2012-13. PCT of residence has been used as this data is available for the 10 year period requested.   The data we have provided should not be considered a count of people as the same person may have been admitted on more than one occasion.   Reference should be made to the footnotes when interpreting the data. 



FAEs: Hypoglycaemia and diabetic ketoacidosis
(Excel SpreadSheet, 231.85 KB)

Blackpool

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which of his Department's capital investment programmes have involved expenditure in Blackpool North and Cleveleys constituency since 2010.

Dr Daniel Poulter: The information below details capital investment funding provided by the Department’s central capital programmes between 1 April 2013 and 25 November 2014. The three trusts listed provide the main acute, community/mental health and ambulance services respectively for Blackpool North and Cleveleys constituency.   Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: - £682,000 for ‘Improving Birthing Environments’; - £1.375 million for ’Energy Efficiency’; - £450,000 for ‘Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards Technology Fund’; - 54,000 for ‘Nursing Technology Fund’; and - £383,000 for ‘Improving Maternity Care Settings’.   Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust: - £358,000 for ‘Nursing Technology Fund’; and - £403,000 for ‘Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards Technology Fund’.   North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust: - None.   Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust also received £49,000 capital investment during the financial year 2012-13 but the Department does not hold information as to the purpose for which the public dividend capital was issued. Prior to the financial year 2012-13 the Department does not hold records of investments split by whether they are for capital or revenue funding purposes.   In addition, the Department holds information on the following major hospital capital investment projects undertaken during this period within Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: - a ‘Phase 6 development - new surgical unit’ with a capital value of £34 million, which opened in July 2011; and - a ‘Women and Children Maternity unit’ with a capital value of £14 million opened August 2010.

Drinks: Sugar

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the levels of sugar in children's drinks.

Jane Ellison: Through our voluntary partnership with industry, we have seen many supermarkets and soft drinks manufacturers take a range of actions to help consumers eat and drink fewer calories. This includes actions to reduce sugar in the drinks they produce and retail and to develop more no or low sugar options.   Examples of recent activity through the voluntary partnership to reduce the intake of sugar from soft drinks include: Britvic’s decision to take its full sugar Fruit Shoot off the market, which it is estimated will remove 2.2 billion kcals from children’s drinks; and the Co-operative Group’s decision to take-out the added sugar from its high juices, which will remove 1.5 billion kcals per year.   The school food standards severely restrict the availability of drinks high in sugar. The regulations allow only healthy drinks to be provided in local authority maintained schools, academies set up prior to 2010 and academies and free schools signing their funding agreements from spring 2014.   The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition has recently published its draft recommendations on carbohydrates. The final report, together with advice from Public Health England on sugar in the diet, is expected to be published in late spring 2015. This will inform the Government’s future thinking on sugar.

Surgery

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people have had to have implants replaced within five years in each of the last five years.

George Freeman: Information relating to the number of implants which have been replaced within five years is not available.

Mental Health Services: Young People

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve counselling services in the NHS for people under the age of 25 who have a mental illness.

Norman Lamb: Improving access to psychological therapies for adults, children and young people is fundamental to the success of our drive to improve mental health services. The Department 2014-15 Mandate to NHS England makes clear that ‘everyone who needs it should have timely access to evidence based services’.   The Mandate sets a clear objective for NHS England to deliver the key objectives of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme, which is available for those aged 18+.   Over £400 million is being invested over the spending review period to make a choice of psychological therapies available for those who need them in all parts of England. For children and young people, the Department is investing £54 million into the Children and Young people’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme (CYP IAPT) over 2011-15/16, which is designed to improve access to evidence-based psychological therapies and collaboration with children, young people and families.   The programme is working with 82 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) partnerships and currently covers 60% of the 0-19 population. The Government’s aim is that all of England will be involved by 2018 and this is reflected in the Mandate with NHS England.   The CYP IAPT programme trains service leaders, supervisors and therapists with a combination of outreach continuing professional development and Postgraduate certificate and Masters Qualifications.   Existing CAMHS therapists are trained to post graduate diploma level in one of four evidence based psychological treatments and approximately 73% of the budget spent to date supports backfill for existing staff to go on courses as well as training costs.

Patients: Safety

Paul Uppal: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how the findings of the friends and family test are being used to improve patient safety in the NHS.

Dr Daniel Poulter: The Friends and Family Test (FFT) was implemented as a mechanism to provide near real-time feedback to identify both good and poor quality patient experience. Whilst the FFT aims to capture overall patient experience, part of the experience that patients may choose to comment on is whether they felt their care was safe. This information can then be used by providers to consider what they do well and make improvements where feedback is less positive. Commissioners and regulators monitor the results of the FFT and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) uses the data - together with other data such as mortality rates and ‘never events’ - as part of its new ‘Hospital Intelligence Monitoring’. The monitoring service gives the CQC an understanding of areas of care that need to be further investigated by inspectors:   http://www.cqc.org.uk/public/hospital-intelligent-monitoring   In April 2014, the Staff FFT was introduced to allow staff feedback on NHS Services based on recent experience. The Staff FFT asks staff to rate and comment on where they work as a place to work and as a place of care. This information can then be used by employers to consider what they do well and make improvements where feedback is less positive.   Commissioners and regulators also monitor the results of the Staff FFT, and the CQC uses this data as part of their Intelligent Monitoring system. The response to this question is also displayed as a key patient safety indicator on NHS Choices:   http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/patient-safety/Pages/patient-safety-indicators.aspx   In addition, hospital boards and other providers and commissioners of services can consider the results of the FFT to consider the implications for quality and safety. A NHS England review of the FFT found that it is performing well as a service improvement tool, with 85% of trusts reporting that it is being used to improve patient experience, and 78% saying that FFT has increased the emphasis placed on patient experience in their trusts.

Meningitis: Children

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many cases of meningitis in children there have been in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison: Meningitis can be caused by a variety of viruses, bacteria and fungi. Public Health England (PHE) does not collect data on all causes but has data on laboratory confirmed cases of invasive meningococcal disease, which is a major cause of bacterial meningitis in England and Wales. This data does not distinguish between presentations of invasive meningococcal disease such as meningitis and septicaemia.   The following table shows the number of cases of confirmed invasive meningococcal disease (all capsular groups) in those of 0-19 years of age, in the last five years (2009-2013).   Confirmed cases of invasive meningococcal disease in England and Wales, PHE 2009-2013, 0-19 years of age: Cases (All capsular groups) by age in years20092010201120122013Up to 1 year of age2332391871751611 year of age13611712898792 years of age78646651503-4 years of age96676976515-8 years of age71515434509-10 years of age251418111311-14 years of age341726171715-19 years of age10999847279Total (0-19 years of age)782668632534500*   *= provisional data

NHS: Drugs

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that the NHS provides fair access for all to life-extending drugs; and if he will make a statement.

George Freeman: The Government is committed to ensuring that patients have access to new and effective treatments, including those which may extend life, on terms that represent value to the National Health Service and the taxpayer.   The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for providing advice to the NHS on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of health technologies. NHS commissioners are legally required to fund treatments recommended by NICE technology appraisal guidance, ensuring consistent access to clinically and cost effective drugs across England. NICE has introduced greater flexibility in the appraisal of effective drugs for patients at the end of their lives, which has helped to secure patient access to a number of potentially life-extending drugs.   We are commissioning an external review of the pathways for the development, assessment, and adoption of innovative medicines and medical technology. This review will consider how to speed up access for NHS patients to cost-effective new diagnostics, medicines and devices.

HIV Infection: Drugs

George Hollingbery: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications of recent research on the effect of pre-exposure prophylaxis for reducing the spread of HIV.

Jane Ellison: In the United Kingdom, the PROUD study (http://www.proud.mrc.ac.uk/), co-sponsored by the Medical Research Council, University College London and Public Health England, is an open-label trial of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use among most-at-risk human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) negative gay and other men who have sex with men (MSM). A major aim of the study is to determine whether PrEP reduced new HIV infections while taking into account changes in risk behaviour and adherence. The study has announced interim results showing that the use of PrEP is highly protective against HIV acquisition: http://www.proud.mrc.ac.uk/PDF/PROUD%20Statement%20161014.pdf. However, we must await the full analysis before we can assess the impact that PrEP may have on reducing the spread of HIV in the MSM population.

Mental Health Strategy Ministerial Advisory Group

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many times the Ministerial Advisory Group on Mental Health has met to date.

Norman Lamb: The Ministerial Advisory Group on Mental Health has met seven times, to date, with the next meeting due to take place on 17 December 2014.

Lung Cancer

Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve care for lung cancer patients diagnosed through emergency routes.

Jane Ellison: The Government is investing £450 million in raising awareness and achieving earlier diagnosis to ensure people are diagnosed with cancer before they present through an emergency route. NHS England are currently working on developing the new care models set out in the Five Year Forward View, which will help ensure that there are sufficient numbers of general practitioners (GPs) working in larger practices with greater access to diagnostic and specialist advice.   The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is in the process of updating the Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer (2005) to ensure that it reflects latest evidence and can continue to support GPs to identify patients with the symptoms of suspected cancer and urgently refer them as appropriate. NICE’s draft is currently out for consultation until 9 January 2015. The anticipated publication date for the revised guidelines is May 2015.   The Department ran a national Be Clear on Cancer lung cancer campaign from May to July 2012 to raise awareness of persistent cough as a symptom of lung cancer and to encourage people with this symptom to visit their GP. Public Health England took over running of Be Clear on Cancer campaigns in April 2013 and have since run two repeat national lung cancer campaigns in July-August 2013 and March-April 2014.   In 2012, to increase the awareness of cancer amongst GPs and support GPs to assess all patients more effectively, the Department funded the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Learning to provide an e-learning tool for GPs. The modules include tackling late diagnosis; risk assessment tools; and cancer pathway and the role of primary care.   In 2013, Macmillan Cancer Support, partly funded by the Department, piloted an electronic cancer decision support (CDS) tool for GPs to use in their routine practice. It is designed to help GPs recognise the symptoms of cancer and identify patients that they might not otherwise refer urgently for suspected cancer. The CDS covers lung cancer and a number of other cancers. Following the pilot, Macmillan is now offering the tool free of charge to all GPs in the United Kingdom.   In March 2012 NICE published the Lung cancer Quality Standard. This quality standard describes markers of high-quality, cost-effective care that, when delivered collectively, should contribute to improving the effectiveness, safety and experience of care for people with lung cancer.   We know from the 2013 National Lung Cancer Audit that there have been continued increases in curative surgery for lung cancer patients. The audit report supports providers and commissioners and NHS England to reduce variation in services and drive improvement locally. We are also providing improved access to treatment through other means, such as the Cancer Drugs Fund. With the development of the chemotherapy dataset, we now have detailed information about chemotherapy drug treatment for lung cancer patients.   Work is also underway to support early diagnosis through delivery of transparent data about performance in outcomes. For example, indicators on stage of diagnosis of cancer and diagnosis through emergency routes are part of the clinical commissioning group outcomes indicator set, which support clinical commissioning groups to understand how their local communities are performing in relation to cancer outcomes.

Dialysis Machines

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential cost to the NHS of devolving the commissioning of dialysis from a single nationally-prescribed service to clinical commissioning groups; and what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that devolution of commissioning is achieved safely by April 2015.

Jane Ellison: Assessments surrounding the transferring of renal dialysis from NHS England to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are ongoing. The Department of Health launched a public consultation on the recommendations put forward by the Prescribed Specialised Services Advisory Group (PSSAG) to transfer commissioning responsibility for renal services from NHS England to CCGs on 27 November 2014. PSSAG is a Department of Health appointed expert committee which was established in 2013 to provide the Secretary of State with advice and recommendations on specialised services   This public consultation is specifically asking key stakeholders involved in the provision of renal dialysis what NHS England would need to do to ensure a safe transfer of commissioning responsibilities to CCGs. This consultation is also asking stakeholders specifically whether the current proposed timescales for the transfer of services are feasible.   NHS England has advised that they are in dialogue with key stakeholders about both the opportunities and challenges of transferring responsibility for renal services. The head of the Specialised Services Task Force in NHS England recently met stakeholders from renal service representative groups and heard their concerns directly. A new Task and Finish group is being established by NHS England through the NHS Commissioning Assembly. This group will look specifically at what support CCGs would require to be able to safely and effectively commission services devolved to them.   NHS England is committed to issuing commissioning guidance for the safe transfer of services from national NHS England responsibility to local CCG responsibility.   The consultation closes on 9 January 2015.

Medway Hospital

Mark Reckless: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the reason was for the time taken for the Quality Care Commission to publish the report of its August inspection of Medway Hospital's accident and emergency unit.

Norman Lamb: The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England. The CQC is responsible for assessing whether providers are meeting the registration requirements; this includes the decision of when to publish its inspection reports on individual hospitals. The CQC has advised that a timeline of 11-12 weeks from conclusion of the physical inspection to publication of the final report is within expectation.   The CQC commenced its inspection of Medway Hospital Foundation Trust at the end of August 2014. As part of the CQC’s inspection process, once the actual physical inspection has taken place, additional time is taken to analyse the data from the inspection in order to formulate an accurate report on the state of the trust inspected. Once this has been done, recommendations can be made regarding any required improvements.   In the case of the Medway Hospital Foundation Trust, the CQC followed up on previous improvements made since an inspection in July 2014 and continued to have regular meetings with the Trust, Monitor and NHS England to ensure necessary action was taken in order to implement recommended improvements. Once this work was completed, the report was finalised and published.

Mental Health Services

Mr Bob Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment his Department has made of the progress made by health agencies in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England to sign up to the principles of the Crisis Care Concordat.

Norman Lamb: The Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat was published in February 2014. Local health, social care and criminal justice partners throughout England are expected to sign local crisis declarations by the end of December 2014.   In Operational Resilience and Capacity Planning for 2014/15 published by NHS England, NHS Trust Development Authority, Monitor, and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services in June 2014 it is clear that operational resilience plans must include evidence of sign-up to local Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat arrangements.   Local declarations should be in place throughout England by the end of 2014. Progress towards this can be seen at the following webpage:   http://www.crisiscareconcordat.org.uk/explore-the-map/   There are plans for a single Crisis Care declaration, to cover the entire West Midlands Police Force area including Coventry, to be agreed in early December.

Women and Equalities

Civil Partnerships

Tim Loughton: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, when she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to permit civil partnerships by opposite sex couples.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she has taken following the consultation on extending civil partnerships to opposite sex couples; and what the findings of the consultation were.

Nick Boles: The report on the conclusions of the Civil Partnership Review (England and Wales) was published on 26 June 2014. Copies have been placed in the House Libraries.A majority of respondents who expressed a view on them were opposed to each of the three main changes to civil partnership. There was therefore no united call for change from respondents to the consultation at this stage.Of the over 10,000 online survey answers to each of the relevant questions:• Less than a third of respondents supported abolition of civil partnership• The majority were against closing civil partnership to new couples• Over three-quarters were against opening up civil partnership to opposite sex couples.Several important organisations thought it was too soon to consider making changes to civil partnership – this should wait until we know the impact of extending marriage to same sex couples. Other organisations, in contrast, put forward a case for opening up civil partnerships to opposite sex couples now, for example because civil partnership and marriage were different relationships and couples should have equal access to both.Given the lack of consensus on the way forward, the Government will not be making any changes.